The question was never whether Richard Grenell would have a position in Donald Trump’s incoming administration. Rather, the question was which job he’d receive.
It’s not exactly a secret that Grenell hoped to become the next U.S. secretary of state, though the president-elect tapped Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for the position. This generated a fair amount of speculation as to where the partisan operative would end up.
At one point last week, Trump published an item to his social media platform describing Grenell as “a fabulous person and “A STAR.” As for Grenell’s career path, the Republican added, “He will be someplace, high up!” Three days later, the president-elect also announced online:
I am pleased to announce Richard Allen Grenell as our Presidential Envoy for Special Missions. Ric will work in some of the hottest spots around the World, including Venezuela and North Korea.
Those wondering what a “presidential envoy for special missions” might do exactly had plenty of company. A Politico report noted, “The scope of the newly created position is unclear and the Trump transition team did not respond to a request for further details. Given the apparent focus on global flashpoints, it is possible Grenell’s portfolio could include Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Haiti or any number of other crises.”
Oh, is that all?
For those unfamiliar with Grenell, The New York Times helped summarize the operative’s background, noting, “He got his start in government before Mr. Trump’s rise, as a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations under multiple presidents. But his online toxicity, foreign business contacts and tendency toward biting personal attacks on political opponents and the media turned off many centrist conservatives, helping propel him toward Mr. Trump, a man he denounced in 2016 as ‘dangerous.’”
Grenell’s most notable position in government came in 2020, when Trump tapped him to serve as the acting director of national intelligence, despite never having served a day in the intelligence community in any capacity. Soon after, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer expressed some rather pointed concerns about whether Grenell had fully disclosed his past work on behalf of foreign clients.
Those concerns did not come out of nowhere. On the contrary, they came on the heels of a ProPublica report published in February 2020 that alleged that Grenell used to work for a Moldovan politician “who is now a fugitive and was recently barred from entering the U.S. under anti-corruption sanctions imposed last month by the State Department.”
The same report added that Grenell allegedly did not disclose the payments he received for the work, and he “did not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which generally requires people to disclose work in the U.S. on behalf of foreign politicians.”
A few days later, The Washington Post ran a related report on the considerable amount of foreign work Grenell and his public relations firm had done — an “unusual” background for someone in the U.S. intelligence community. The article added that at least some of Grenell’s work has been “the type of activity that, in other cases, has drawn the attention of Justice Department investigators tasked with enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), according to two lawyers who specialize in that law.”
Meanwhile, a CNN report added, “Years before becoming the nation’s top intelligence official, Richard Grenell touted his consulting work for clients in Iran, China and other countries, which included projects that could violate foreign lobbying laws or jeopardize his security clearance.” (Grenell has long denied any wrongdoing. Neither MSNBC nor NBC News independently verified the ProPublica, Washington Post or CNN reports.) What’s more, before Grenell served as the acting director of national intelligence, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany during the Trump administration. His tenure was not exactly a success story: Multiple reports at the time indicated that Grenell managed to routinely infuriate German officials in Berlin. Grenell was so reviled in his diplomatic post that some German officials spoke publicly about the possibility of asking him to leave the country. As Trump’s presidency came to an end, Grenell also traveled to Nevada and claimed that thousands of illegitimate votes were being tallied. When NBC News’ Jacob Soboroff caught up with Grenell and asked him to bolster his allegation with evidence, it didn’t go well. Four years later, the Republican is poised to be rewarded for his efforts. The aforementioned Times report added, “Since 2023, special envoys have required Senate confirmation if they met a specific standard set out in U.S. law, but it is unclear whether Mr. Trump and a Republican-controlled Senate would decide that Mr. Grenell’s position required confirmation.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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