From July 1, 2011 to September 6, 2011, Morell served his first stint as acting director of the CIA, replacing Leon Panetta after he was confirmed as Secretary of Defense. On November 9, 2012, Morell once again became acting director after the resignation of David Petraeus, following a sex scandal. President Obama considered Morell as the permanent replacement to Petraeus but chose John Brennan instead; Brennan was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a 63 to 34 vote on March 5, 2013. Morell announced his retirement from the CIA on June 12, 2013 and left the Agency in early September 2013. Post retirement In November 2013, Morell joined Beacon Global Strategies as a Senior Counselor. In 2018, Beacon named Morell as the head of its geo-political risk practice. In this role, Morell advises firms on global developments and what they mean for the companies. In January 2014, Morell joined CBS News as an on-air contributor on intelligence and national security. In 2018, CBS began producing Morell's weekly podcast on national security, titled Intelligence Matters. In each episode, Morell speaks with current and former members of the intelligence community as well as policymakers about their careers and about national security issues. Each episode is distributed as a podcast and an hour-long program on CBS News Radio. Morell also contributes to the media in other ways, as a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and as an expert voice on Axios. In October 2020, Morell signed a letter stating the Biden laptop story “has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." In November 2022 CBS News published statements from the chief technology officer of Computer Forensics Services (from whom CBS commissioned analysis and investigation) declaring: "I have no doubt in my mind that this data was created by Hunter Biden, and that it came from a computer under Mr. Biden's control." Criticizes Edward Snowden In the wake of Edward Snowden's 2013 leak of documents on international espionage conducted by the National Security Agency, Morell was appointed as a member of President Obama's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. By the end of 2013, the group presented a report to the White House. Nearly all the Review Group's recommendations were accepted. Morell has been a regular critic of Snowden for exposing NSA surveillance programs, charging the damage done by Snowden was profound and that he should come home to face a