Acting intelligence chief cuts ODNI staff in broader shrink effort

Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte fired six intelligence officials and sent 45 others back to their home agencies, a 51-person personnel move that marked the first sharp turn in his broader effort to shrink the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. No staffers were removed from ODNI’s counterterrorism group, and former officials said some of the earliest dismissals included political appointees tied to former DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

The reductions landed after Donald Trump publicly directed Pulte on June 10 to downsize ODNI and return personnel to their home agencies. Pulte took over as acting director around June 19 and had already asked deputies for a list of roughly 300 employees who could be fired in the coming weeks. By the time the latest round of cuts was complete, Pulte had told deputies that the 51 removals were enough for now, even though some had pushed for deeper reductions.

ODNI sits at the center of the U.S. intelligence system, coordinating the work of 18 intelligence agencies and organizations. Congress created the office in 2004 after the Sept. 11 attacks, aiming to improve intelligence sharing after one of the most damaging failures in modern U.S. security.

The shape of the cuts has raised questions about what kind of intelligence shop Pulte intends to leave behind. Former officials said some employees were removed because they had no current assignments or because their duties were outdated, while others were walked out of the building as the firings began. The spare-the-counterterrorism choice suggests the administration is not flattening every function at once, but it also shows that the first cuts are targeting people and posts that appear less central to the acting director’s current priorities.

That concern has already reached Capitol Hill. On June 22, Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes warned Pulte against sweeping workforce changes, improper declassification of material, and steps they said belonged to a Senate-confirmed DNI rather than an acting chief. The two Democrats also said major cuts could endanger an office created after 9/11 to keep another intelligence breakdown from happening.