On August 20, the Trump administration announced that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) will cut its workforce and budget by over $700 million annually.
The workforce will be reduced by 40%. To justify such measures, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stated:
“Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence…”
AP
She provided no evidence to support the existence of these “abuses of power” and “politicized weaponization of intelligence.” The Trump administration is more guilty of this regardless, with Gabbard declassifying Obama-era documents to falsely suggest that former President Barack Obama committed criminal activity, and that Russia did not attempt to influence the 2016 election in favor of Trump.
The Foreign Malign Influence Center, which tracks influence operations abroad and general threats to elections, was essentially terminated, as it is being absorbed into other parts of government. The move is illogical, considering that the center already cooperated with other federal agencies. Gabbard falsely and without evidence claimed that the center was “used by the previous administration to justify the suppression of free speech and to censor political opposition.”
Gabbard also falsely labeled the program as “redundant.” However, in reality, it was one of the few programs that parsed intelligence assessments across the government.
