A legal expert was stunned on Monday by reports that one of President Donald Trump's loyalists had begun firing career intelligence officials.
Bill Pulte, who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency and serves as the acting director of national intelligence, reportedly showed up to work a day early to get a list of all of the employees under his purview and then promptly began firing them on Monday. Reports did not indicate how many people were affected, but one source told CNN that those being fired are considered part of the "deep state."
Elliot Williams, a former federal prosecutor, told CNN's Brianna Keilar on "The Source" that Pulte's decision to fire these professionals came at a "disastrously bad" time because of all of the threats the U.S. faces.
"Right now, as a country, we are coming out of a military conflict with a state sponsor of terror. Right now, there are hundreds of thousands of visitors in the country for the World Cup coming from, God knows where, all over the planet," Williams said. "And most importantly, we're about to have national celebrations around the nation's 250th [birthday]."
"If there was ever a time at which the nation is probably most vulnerable to a terrorist attack, it's right now," he added. "It's this month, and the idea of willy-nilly coming in and just firing hundreds or however many people from the nation's intelligence apparatus is just dangerous. It's just a ridiculously stupid idea."
