Tulsi Gabbard Fires Top Intelligence Officials Who Contradicted Trump

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fired the top two National Intelligence Council officials just weeks after the NIC wrote an intelligence report rebuking some of the Trump administration’s claims about the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. 

According to a Wednesday report from Fox News, Gabbard fired National Intelligence Council Acting Chair Mike Collins and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof, on Tuesday. Collins and Langan-Riekhof were reportedly accused by whistleblowers of being “radically opposed to Trump” and “deliberately undermining the incoming Trump administration.” 

The firings came just a few days after Gabbard’s office authorized the partial declassification of an NIC report that found Venezuela’s government was not directing the movement of Tren de Aragua gang members to the United States, and did not have effective control over the gang’s operations. The intelligence assessment contradicted the Trump administration’s claims that the gang was “undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela,” as written by Trump in his proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act in order to suspend the due-process rights of Venezuelan migrants. 

The intelligence report asserted: “The Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” adding that “the small size of TDA’s cells, its focus on low-skill criminal activities, and its decentralized structure make it highly unlikely that TDA coordinates large volumes of human trafficking or migrant smuggling.” 

Gabbard is reportedly moving the NIC from the CIA to her own office in order to “directly hold accountable any improper action and politicization of intelligence,” per Fox News.

In a statement to The Washington Post, House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said that he was “concerned about the apparent removal of senior leadership at the National Intelligence Council without any explanation except vague accusations made in the media.” 
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“Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the president’s agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical,” he said.

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A spokesperson for Gabbard’s office told the WAPO that Gabbard “is working alongside President Trump to end the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community.” 

Gabbard’s early tenure as DNI has been defined by her contentious confirmation process, the firing of alleged “leakers,” and her defense of other Cabinet members divulging sensitive national security information in unsecure Signal group chats. But in the Trump administration, the only qualification necessary is slavish sycophancy to the president. Collins and Langan-Riekhof didn’t exhibit it, according to Gabbard, and so they found themselves forcibly exiled from their government roles.