ODNI under Pulte fires 6 staff, sends 45 back to home agencies

Just over 50 career and political intelligence staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have been removed from their roles since Bill Pulte became the agency's acting director, Friday.

Six career and political intelligence staff were terminated and 45 were sent back to their home agencies, according to three sources familiar with the personnel moves.

Pulte has been asking deputies and other directors for suggestions about cuts. Some of the ODNI deputies pushed for more cuts, but Pulte said that the 51 was enough for now, one of the sources said.

One source characterized the cuts as thoughtful and methodical. No staffers have been removed from the counterterrorism group.

No further firings are planned for now, two of the sources said.

The cuts follow hundreds of staff reductions last year by former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who stepped down last week. Last year's planned downsizing sought to bring the office's headcount from 2,000 to around 1,300.

President Trump has pushed for further cuts, directing Pulte to "execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office" in a Truth Social post earlier this month.

The office is charged with overseeing the country's intelligence agencies and helping them coordinate with each other. It was created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which investigators widely believe was preceded by a failure of intelligence agencies to share information. 

Since then, Gabbard and some lawmakers have argued the ODNI has become bloated and has added more bureaucracy to the intelligence community — worsening a problem it was created in part to resolve. 

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said earlier this month the office has "grown far beyond its original mandate."  Many of the office's staff hail from other intelligence agencies but have been detailed to ODNI, and Cotton argued large numbers of them should be returned to their "home agencies."

Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence panels, warned Pulte against making large-scale staff cuts, calling it an inappropriate course of action for an acting official without national security experience.

"While there is room to consider responsible reductions to ODNI's workforce, any large cuts would follow on a substantial downsizing that has already occurred in 2025 and risk jeopardizing the mission of an organization explicitly created after 9/11 to prevent any future such terrorist attack," the two Democrats wrote in a joint statement.

After Gabbard announced in May that she would resign from the post, Mr. Trump said he would install Pulte, a housing finance official, as acting director of national intelligence. He later nominated Jay Clayton, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, to serve as Senate-confirmed director.

Mr. Trump's pick for acting director of national intelligence, who assumed the role on Friday, has sparked intense pushback in Congress. Democrats, and some Republicans, questioned the selection due to his lack of national security experience. 

Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado said Sunday he's worried that "Americans are at risk" with Pulte serving as DNI "because we have someone who's incompetent at the head of this agency," in an interview on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."

In addition to Pulte's lack of national security experience, Democrats have railed against the pick for his role in investigations into Mr. Trump's political foes. Crow, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, said he's "obviously concerned that this is somebody who's a political attack dog, and his single biggest qualification is that he's loyal to Donald Trump and is willing to go after Donald Trump's enemies." But he said more immediately, he's concerned about Americans' safety.

"This is a really important position. This sits atop our intelligence agencies, and by law, Congress mandated that this person have significant intelligence experience because they have to make sure that we're keeping Americans safe, which is not what Bill Pulte is capable of doing," Crow said. 

Since Pulte's selection, Democrats have declined to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which grants intelligence agencies broad authority to spy on overseas targets, causing the legal provision to expire earlier this month. 

And as Senate GOP leaders tried to bring an end to the impasse by moving to quickly confirm Clayton as permanent director of national intelligence, the president abruptly called for Clayton's confirmation hearing to be canceled last week.

Talks on extending FISA Section 702 were already strained, with some members of both parties pushing for stricter guardrails and arguing the program can scoop up Americans' communications without a warrant. Intelligence officials say the program is essential to national security.

Asked whether Democrats have miscalculated, Crow said "not at all."

"I know how important it is, but I'm unwilling to trade Americans' constitutional rights, privacy and essential civil liberties for temporary extension to this program," Crow said.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said on "Face the Nation" that "any Democrat that shuts down FISA at a time of great peril for the United States is making a huge mistake."

"We're playing with fire here, no matter what side does it," Graham said. "America needs FISA up and running."