Tulsi Gabbard Fires Top National Intelligence Council Officials Over Politicization Claims

Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, has fired the top two officials of the National Intelligence Council, Mike Collins and Maria Langan-Riekhof, due to allegations that they were politically biased against President Donald Trump and involved in politicizing intelligence. Collins faced whistleblower complaints for undermining the Trump administration and had ties to former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell, who had publicly questioned the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Langan-Riekhof was noted as a strong advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which were seen as conflicting with Trump’s policies. In addition to these firings, Gabbard moved the National Intelligence Council from the CIA to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to better manage accountability and prevent politicization of intelligence operations. Officials described many intelligence community leakers as entrenched career bureaucrats, and Gabbard is also working to eliminate non-essential offices within the ODNI believed to harbor such leakers. These actions follow previous steps by Gabbard to refer intelligence officials to the Justice Department for leaking classified information to major news outlets.