The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has shed more than 50 career and political staff under Acting Director Bill Pulte, who assumed the role less than a week ago after former Director Tulsi Gabbard left the post in late May. CBS News reported Tuesday that six employees were fired and 45 were “sent back to their home agencies,” a procedure that returns personnel to their originating departments rather than terminating their federal employment.
CNN, which first reported the firings Monday, said political appointees with ties to Gabbard were among those purged. ABC News reported that cuts to the National Counterterrorism Center were expected to be particularly large. The ODNI did not respond to a request for comment from The Guardian.
Pulte, who also leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, had signaled the scale of the reductions days earlier. CNN reported on June 19 — the same day Pulte assumed the acting director role — that he was considering the dismissal of hundreds of staff members.
The dismissals add to a workforce already significantly reduced under Gabbard. Last August, Gabbard announced a 40% reduction in the ODNI workforce, citing what she described as a bloated and inefficient office and an intelligence community “rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence.”
On Monday, Representative James Himes of Connecticut and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees, respectively, sent a letter to Pulte expressing concern about “substantive changes” to the office, including firing hundreds of people, without consulting Congress.
“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 letter reads.
The acting director also faced skepticism from within his own party. Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is retiring, told reporters Tuesday that Pulte should first conduct an analysis at ODNI and “only [eliminate] the people whose jobs can be either automated or never should have been there.”
“My guess is based on his past experience, it’s going to be another hot, steaming pile of Doge shit,” Tillis said. “I think he’s an incompetent sycophant and not the right person to lead DNI, and you’re undermining ultimately what the confirmed administrator should be doing.”
The shakeup at the intelligence office comes amid a broader contest between the White House and Congress over who will lead the agency long-term. MSI previously reported that President Donald Trump nominated former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton as Gabbard’s permanent replacement on June 11, but Clayton’s confirmation hearing was halted a week later amid opposition from both parties.