Intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard fired a pair of veteran analysts whose work undercut a key legal argument the Trump administration had used in court.
The director of national intelligence dismissed the top two career officials leading the National Intelligence Council, the in the intelligence community's senior most analytical group that determines the biggest threats to U.S. security, after Gabbard's office released a declassified assessment that undercut administration claims about the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, reported CNN.
"Gabbard fired Mike Collins, the acting chair, and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof, on Tuesday," the network reported, citing a spokesman's confirmation of their firings.
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The NIC's declassified memo found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government, which contradicted statements by Trump administration officials used to justify the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and deportation of Venezuelan migrants.
Some portions of that memo had already been leaked to the media, which Gabbard said was already under review, and she blamed reporters for “twisting and manipulating intelligence assessments to undermine the president’s agenda to keep the American people safe.”
Former intelligence official Jonathan Panikoff, who served on the NIC and worked with both newly fired officials, said Collins is “an unbelievable professional who’s served selflessly for 30 years and is a real China expert,” and Langan-Riekhof “is not just a strategic thinker but an unbelievably gifted analyst."
Gabbard recently told conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly there were 11 internal investigations currently under way into unauthorized disclosures to the media and said she has referred three of those cases to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution.
“Really what is happening when they do that is they’re undermining our democracy because what they’re doing… is saying, ‘I’m doing what’s best for the country and I know what’s better for the country than the majority of the American people who chose this duly elected president,” Gabbard told Kelly. “The only way we bring about accountability is by doing the work of conducting these investigations.”
