At that point, sources said, with the April 15 statutory deadline for submission of the report to Congress fast approaching, top aides to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo intervened. They wrested responsibility for the report from Poblete’s AVC and reassigned it to the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN), headed by Assistant Secretary Christopher Ford. Shortly after that, Poblete resigned from the government; a senior State Department official, authorized to speak to Sinclair, said Poblete was “fired,” in part due to her handling of the report.
The internecine clash over the report was so intense, sources said, that the final product was rejected by the White House National Security Council (NSC), which issued a terse statement to the inter-agency participants making explicit the council’s “non-concurrence.” Experts said it is rare, if not unprecedented, for a report of this nature to be forwarded to Congress with non-concurrence from the White House.
