By Ellen Nakashima @ WashingtonPost.com, Jan. 16

Acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller ordered the director of the National Security Agency to install on Saturday a former GOP political operative as the NSA’s top lawyer, according to four individuals familiar with the matter.

It is unclear what the NSA will do. The agency and the Pentagon declined to comment.

In November, Pentagon General Counsel Paul C. Ney Jr. named Michael Ellis, then a White House official, to the position of general counsel at the NSA, a career civilian post at the government’s largest and most technologically advanced spy agency, The Post reported. He was selected after a competitive civil service competition. He has not taken up the job, however, as he needed to complete administrative procedures, including taking a polygraph test.

Reached by phone Saturday, Ellis said, “I don’t talk to the press, thank you,” and hung up.

NSA Director Paul Nakasone was not in favor of Ellis’s selection and has sought to delay his installation, according to several people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. [....]