Tulsi Gabbard ends intelligence reform task force after less than a year
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Less than a year after its founding, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced that she was ending the work of a task force aimed at reforming the U.S. intelligence community, including rooting out what she described as the politicization of intelligence gathering.
Gabbard founded the group in April, when she was also tasked with investigating ways to reduce intelligence spending and whether reports on high-profile issues like COVID-19 should be declassified.
In a statement Wednesday, Gabbard said the task force’s work was always intended to be temporary after being tasked with overseeing coordination of 18 U.S. intelligence agencies.
“In less than a year, we have brought a historic level of transparency to the intelligence community,” Gabbard said in her statement. “My commitment to transparency, truth, and eliminating politicization and weaponization in the intelligence community remains at the heart of everything we do.”
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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced that she is ending the work of a task force aimed at reforming the US intelligence community. (Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
The number and identities of officers assigned to the task force are being kept confidential, according to Gabbard’s office.
His office added that officers will now turn to other intelligence agencies to continue the work begun by the group.
The group sparked criticism against Gabbard upon its founding; Democrats and some intelligence insiders have raised questions about whether it could be used to undermine intelligence agencies and bring them under tighter control of President Donald Trump.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last year that the group appeared to be a “gateway for a witch hunt” designed to target intelligence officials deemed disloyal to Trump.
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The task force sought to dispel the suggestion that intelligence gathering had become politicized. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“This appears to be just a hotspot for a witch hunt, and that will further weaken our national security,” Warner told Reuters at the time.
Gabbard implemented significant changes to the nation’s intelligence gathering last year, including using the agencies to support Trump’s claims about alleged interference in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
In August, he announced plans to reduce his office’s workforce and cut more than $700 million from its annual budget. He also fired two senior intelligence officials in May after concluding they opposed Trump.
Since Gabbard took office as director, the federal government has revoked the security clearances of dozens of former and current officials, including the president’s high-profile political opponents; Critics viewed it as punishment for siding against Trump rather than posing security risks.
Officers assigned to the task force will now turn to other intelligence agencies. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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Gabbard’s recent presence in an FBI search of a Georgia election office in connection with the 2020 election has drawn criticism from Democrats who argue she is blurring traditional lines between foreign intelligence gathering and domestic law enforcement.
The CIA has also released additional information about its research into the origins of COVID-19, such as an assessment published last year that confirmed the view that it likely originated in a laboratory in China.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
