This ope-ed piece...wow. There are so many things wrong about it, but just off the top of my head:
--Presuming it is true, the fact that someone in the administration thinks that they are above normal governmental functioning and chain of command is just numbing. That's as far from checks and balances as the government gets. Whether the President is a whack-job or not, this alleged cabal should be rooted out and shown the door.
--I wonder what this person's background is. There's no indication as to whether this individual was a holdover from a prior regime or not. This person "outed" his resistance and consequently shot his scheme in the foot yet wanted to remain anonymous. Seems like he's trying to protect a pension more than tying to save the people. Why end the effort now?
--The Times had to take the "extraordinary" measure of (a) publishing an anonymous op ed piece, and (b) explaining its decision in a preamble to the piece. Please -- that's CYA at its finest.
--The author is a sniveling coward.
--The Times is disingenuous, at best.
--I'm being polite.