Former Central Valley Congressmember Devin Nunes will join the new Trump administration as an intelligence adviser.

President-elect Donald Trump appointed Nunes to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board last week. Nunes will retain his role in the private sector as CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group.

“Devin will draw on his experience as former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and his key role in exposing the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, to provide me with independent assessments of the effectiveness and propriety of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s activities,” Trump said in a news release.

Nunes, R-Tulare, represented the Central Valley in Congress from 2003 through 2021. He served as the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee and emerged as a close ally of Trump during the first administration.

In 2018, Nunes released the “Nunes Memo,” about the FBI’s 2016 investigation into a possible Russia-Trump connection.

“We quickly began uncovering evidence that the entire Russia collusion narrative was a hoax funded by the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign and weaponized by our own intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” Nunes wrote in a Fox News op-ed last week, defending Trump’s FBI pick, Kash Patel.

Patel worked as an intelligence staffer under Nunes.

Nunes did not respond to a message for comment.

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What is the Intelligence Advisory Board?

The independent board operates within the Executive Office of the President.

“The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board exists exclusively to assist the President by providing the President with an independent source of advice on the effectiveness with which the intelligence community is meeting the nation’s intelligence needs and the vigor and insight with which the community plans for the future,” a 2024 Biden Administration news release said.

Retired Admiral Sandy Winnefeld has served as the PBIA chair since 2022. Other Biden appointees include former Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano and ambassador to India, Richard Verma.

Trump has not publicly announced other board appointments. He can appoint up to 16.

The board can be traced back to President Dwight Eisenhower creating the President’s Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities in 1956. President Jimmy Carter abolished the board in 1977, only for it to be reinstated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.