President Donald Trump's new acting spy chief arrived at his post Friday with orders to fire hundreds of intelligence officials — clearing the way for Trump's election meddling aspirations in the midterms.
Bill Pulte, who took over the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday without Senate confirmation, can hold the post for up to 210 days under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act — well past November's midterm elections.
CNN reported that Pulte showed up on his first day with a list of employees and that he "eyes firing hundreds."
Trump has been explicit about what he wants Pulte to do with that window.
"He may find out some things about the rigged elections," Trump told reporters this month. "I think he wants to do it very much."
Reuters reported Friday that the White House has suppressed an ODNI report on voting machine vulnerabilities for months.
Some officials believe the report doesn't go far enough to validate Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Pulte has already been briefed on it, two sources told Reuters.
Trump has told the Wall Street Journal he wants Pulte to fire "a lot of people." Pulte's acting status is the point, Trump said: "You're less shackled."
Those firings would gut the career analysts most likely to push back on the ODNI report's findings, and on any action taken aimed at midterms.
Reuters and Foreign Policy have reported that the CIA has already stopped contributing to some ODNI assessments because of friction under outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard, and that top analysts are avoiding the National Intelligence Council for fear of political pressure.
"DNI Gabbard spent 18 months and untold taxpayer dollars trying to give substance to lies about the 2020 election and found absolutely nothing," election law expert David Becker said, adding that Pulte was "hand-picked to replace her precisely because he too embraces the lies and conspiracy theories while ignoring the evidence."