DNI Tulsi Gabbard Ousts Covert CIA Expert After Meeting with Putin, Stirring Controversy over Intelligence Community Purge
Following President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, dismissed a CIA expert who had been instrumental in briefing Trump’s team prior to the encounter. Sources familiar with the incident revealed that this individual was named in a memo issued by Gabbard last week, revoking the security clearances of several current and former intelligence officials.
The unnamed CIA officer, previously associated with the agency publicly, was reportedly undercover at the time of Gabbard’s announcement, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. This individual had been operating covertly, despite her past public affiliation with the CIA.
A person close to Gabbard contested that the employee was undercover, citing her past public association with the agency. However, it is common for intelligence officers at the CIA to transition between covered and non-covered roles depending on their assignments. Furthermore, they argued that the decision to revoke this particular CIA employee’s security clearance was unrelated to their work on Russia-related issues, and that another intelligence official with similar expertise would be promoted instead.
The DNI spokesperson explained the revocations as a measure to prevent individuals who had violated public trust by politicizing, manipulating, or leaking classified intelligence from continuing to do so. In a statement to CNN, they stated, “Director of National Intelligence Gabbard directed the revocations to ensure individuals who have abused the public trust are no longer allowed to do so.”
The reasons behind Gabbard’s decision to effectively dismiss the officer remain unclear. The individual was named among 37 current and former intelligence officers whose security clearances were publicly revoked by Gabbard due to alleged politicization, manipulation of intelligence, unauthorized leaks, and intentional egregious violations of tradecraft standards.
Preliminary details regarding the CIA employee’s dismissal were first reported by The Washington Post.
The incident serves as the latest example of tension between Gabbard’s agency, which oversees the intelligence community, and the CIA, led by Director John Ratcliffe. Some CIA officers have expressed concerns about Gabbard’s approach to depoliticizing the intelligence community, asserting that she often acts without adequate coordination with the agencies whose personnel she is effectively purging.
The person close to Gabbard also denied that her announcement of the dismissal took the CIA by surprise, claiming that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had communicated the decision to the CIA and other relevant agencies before the public announcement. The decision was also coordinated with the White House Counsel’s office, this person added.