New Trump appointee fires several office of director of national intelligence staff – report

Several staff members have reportedly been fired from the US office of the director of national intelligence (DNI), multiple outlets have reported. These firings come less than a week after Donald Trump appointed Bill Pulte as the acting director after former director Tulsi Gabbard left the post in late May. According to CNN , who was first to report the firings on Monday, political appointees with ties to Gabbard were among those purged. ABC News reported that cuts to the National Terrorism Center were expected to be particularly large. CBS reported on Tuesday that more than 50 career and political staff members had been dismissed, with six individuals fired and 45 “sent back to their home agencies”. DNI has not responded to the Guardian’s request for comment on the reported firings. CNN first reported that Pulte, who also leads the federal housing finance agency, was considering the dismissal of hundreds of staff members on 19 June on the same day he assumed the role of acting director. On Monday, representative James Himes and senator Mark Warner, the top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees, respectively, sent a letter to Pulte to voice their concerns about Pulte making substantive changes to DNI, including firing hundreds of people, without the consultation of Congress. …