Whoops! Tulsi Gabbard blows a CIA agent’s cover

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard blindsided the Central Intelligence Agency last week by naming an undercover officer on a list of 37 officials stripped of security clearances.

She posted the memo on Aug. 19 at the direction of President Donald Trump, sharing it on X with her more than 762,000 followers. The list targeted people who supported Trump’s first impeachment or worked on issues like Russian interference and foreign election meddling.

President Donald Trump stands with Tulsi Gabbard and her husband after she was sworn in as Director of National Intelligence on Feb. 12.

Among those listed was a senior CIA officer still working undercover—a detail Gabbard either didn’t know or didn’t care to confirm. According to The Wall Street Journal, Gabbard didn’t “meaningfully consult” the agency before going public, giving the CIA little warning and no chance to weigh in

Instead, her office sent the list to the agency the night before the release, practically making damage inevitable. According to people familiar with the matter, the CIA had no advance notice that Gabbard would post the names online, including that of a covert officer.

The blunder threatens to deepen tensions between the two top intelligence shops. Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA chief of staff, told the Journal that any “smart” DNI would have cleared the move with the agency first. 

“It could potentially put CIA cover procedures at risk. It could put relations with foreign governments at risk,” he said.

Others were even less diplomatic. Brian Fiarchil, a retired CIA operations officer, blasted Gabbard on X as a “Trump lapdog” who knows nothing about intelligence and “will do anything to stay” in the president’s good graces.

Notably, this dust-up was not the first between Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. In July, Gabbard declassified a report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election that the CIA wanted more heavily redacted, arguing that it exposed sensitive sources and methods. But Gabbard ignored those concerns and did it anyway.

And now with a covert officer’s cover blown, the CIA is scrambling to contain the fallout while avoiding open war with Trump’s handpicked DNI. 

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard sits next to CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

“Director Ratcliffe and the President’s entire elite national security team are committed to eradicating the politicization of intelligence and are focused on executing President Trump’s national security priorities, and keeping the American people safe,” CIA spokesperson Liz Lyons said.

Gabbard has come a long way from her days as a Democratic representative from Hawaii, but her recent actions continue to land her in trouble. It’s part of a broader pattern for Gabbard: She’ll do whatever it takes to stay in Trump’s good graces—even if she hurts herself. 

Trump was openly annoyed with her when they clashed over Iran’s nuclear program. Then, seemingly to win back his favor, she accused President Barack Obama of treason during the 2016 election, a move critics saw as an attempt to distract from the fallout over the administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files. The clearance memo seemed like more of the same—an exaggerated show of loyalty that instantly backfired.

In her Aug. 19 post, Gabbard claimed to be following Trump’s orders to revoke the clearances, framing it as a crackdown on officials who had politicized or leaked intelligence. Her spokesperson repeated that line to the Journal but, once again, offered no evidence that the affected officials had mishandled classified material.

“Gabbard directed the revocations to ensure individuals who have violated the trust placed in them by weaponizing, politicizing, manipulating, or leaking classified intelligence are no longer allowed to do so,” the spokesperson said.

Related | Tulsi Gabbard creates new task force to pursue Trump’s favorite vendettas

The problem is that one of those officials was a seasoned CIA officer with more than 20 years of experience in intelligence, including a stint on the National Intelligence Council as an expert on Russia and Eurasia.

And there’s another wrinkle in Gabbard’s move: Revealing the identity of a covert officer is a felony. Though whether that law applies to a government official is somewhat murky.

Attorney Mark Zaid, who represents intelligence officers and lost his own clearance under Trump, suggested that Gabbard might have broken the law.

“Can you say ‘Privacy Act violation’? I certainly can. Further proof of weaponization and politicization,” he wrote on X. “The vast majority of these individuals are not household names & are dedicated public servants who have worked across multiple presidential administrations.” 

Gabbard’s memo was meant to show loyalty to Trump. But instead, all she did was expose a covert officer and make herself look even more reckless.

Watch: Senate confirmation hearing for John Ratcliffe

The race to confirm Donald Trump’s nightmare Cabinet has entered its final stretch: Senate confirmation hearings.

Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, Trump’s pick for CIA director, quickly withdrew his first DNI nomination in 2019 amid concerns he was unqualified. In the end, he was confirmed in 2020, on Trump’s second try. A former Texas congressman, Ratcliffe’s grilling of special counsel Robert Mueller and intense defense of Trump during his first impeachment trial are largely credited with his brief ascent to the first Trump Cabinet.

Ratcliffe’s hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee begins at 10 AM ET on Wednesday. 

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Trump picks his former director of national intelligence to head CIA

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump announced that he is nominating former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

A former Republican congressman from Texas, Ratcliffe served as director of national intelligence for the final year and a half of Trump’s first term, leading the U.S. government’s spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. He is a more traditional pick for the role, which requires Senate confirmation, than some rumored loyalists pushed by some of Trump's supporters.

As intelligence director, he was criticized by Democrats for declassifying in the final days of the 2020 presidential election Russian intelligence alleging damaging information about Democrats during the 2016 race even though he acknowledged it might not be true.

Ratcliffe's visibility rose as he emerged in 2019 as an ardent defender of Trump during the House’s first impeachment proceedings against him. He was a member of Trump’s impeachment advisory team and strenuously questioned witnesses during the impeachment hearings.

After the Democratic-controlled House voted to impeach Trump, Ratcliffe said: “This is the thinnest, fastest and weakest impeachment our country has ever seen.” He also forcefully questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller when he testified before the House Judiciary Committee about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation’s highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement. “He will be a fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans, while ensuring the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.”

Intelligence agencies fear that Trump has been leaking information on U.S. spies overseas

In what may be the most shocking story to emerge from the entire Mar-a-Lago document scandal, The New York Times is reporting that officials at intelligence agencies fear that among the classified information Donald Trump stole was details on U.S. assets embedded in foreign countries. The names, locations, and even the existence of such assets is among the most guarded secrets of the nation. But something mysterious has been happening over the last few years, with an unusual number of foreign sources being killed or arrested.

In the past, officials have worried that documents leaked by outlets like WikiLeaks might, either purposely or intentionally, reveal the identity of U.S. sources, putting their lives at risk. But now, intelligence agencies have a greater concern: A man who has a horde of stolen documents, connections to numerous hostile governments, and a frequently expressed disdain for both sources and the intelligence community. Put it all together, and you get one of the most amazing front pages in recent years.

New York Times, Saturday Late Edition, Aug. 27, 2022
Saturday, Aug 27, 2022 · 6:11:20 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Known Timeline: 1. 7/31/2019: Trump spoke with Putin (NYT) 2. 8/3/2019: Trump issued a request for a list of top US spies (The Daily Beast) 3. 10/5/2021: "CIA Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants". (NYT) 4. 8/26/2022: Documents at MAL Could Compromise Human Intel (NYT) 1/5 pic.twitter.com/rqNqRZUQL2

— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) August 27, 2022

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In the days leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, one fact stood out: The United States had uncannily accurate information about Russia’s plans. It was crystal clear that, not only did the U.S. have a fleet of high resolution satellites and other resources observing Russian movements on the ground, they also had sources inside the Kremlin that were giving the White House a direct pipeline into Vladimir Putin’s every thought.

It’s hard to put a value on that kind of intelligence. In this one case, it’s even possible that Ukraine would not have survived, had it not received early, accurate warnings of both Russian troop build-ups and Putin’s intentions. Thanks to U.S. intelligence sources.

It can take years to establish a reliable source. It can take moments for that point of light to go dark.

Even before he took up residence in the White House, Trump frequently expressed disdain for the intelligence services. Just as he bragged that he was “smarter than all the generals” and declared that his natural instincts allowed him to declare the climate crisis a fraud, Trump has celebrated his “gut” over the combined efforts of agents and analysts. Stories of Trump’s refusal to engage with intelligence briefings have been all too common over the last five years. Trump sneered that his own intelligence chiefs were “naïve” in their assessments of international events, mocked their findings, and insisted they should “go back to school.”

Even more than intelligence agencies, Trump hates whistleblowers. At every instance, he had ridiculed the idea of an anonymous source, insisted that whistleblowers be revealed, then attacked and endangered them once they were known. In his first impeachment, Trump constantly attacked the whistleblower who revealed his attempt to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He didn’t just ridicule the whistleblower continuously, but insisted that the whistleblower testify in public—Republicans in Congress took up that call.

Most tellingly, when Trump learned an alleged name for the whistleblower, he tweeted it over and over.

Pair Trump’s attitude toward the intelligence services, whistleblowers, and witnesses of all kinds, with his incredible disdain for protecting classified information, and it’s a recipe for utter catastrophe. The revelation of a “NOC list,” giving away dozens of undercover operatives in vital roles, may be the subject of adventure fiction, but it seems like an all-too-real possibility for Trump.

And if the nation needed another reminder of just how lax Trump’s actual security at Mar-a-Lago really is, there was the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story this week in which a 33-year-old Russian-speaking Ukrainian immigrant convinced Trump that she was actually an heiress of the Rothschild banking family. 

In addition to the FBI, law enforcement agents in Canada have confirmed that she has been the subject of a major crimes unit investigation in Quebec since February.

But there she was at Mar-a-Lago, playing golf with Trump and Lindsay Graham. She was there. So  were all those documents suspected to hold key information about U.S. sources in some of the most sensitive areas of the world. 

Even the hint that one of these sources might have been revealed can result in an immediate, emergency exfiltration to bring them to safety in the U.S. That means that it doesn’t even take the death or arrest of a U.S. source to cripple intelligence gathering. All it takes is concern that a source might have been compromised.

Donald Trump has provided plenty of cause for concern.

CIA director hanging by a thread as Trump eyes releasing US intelligence on Russian interference

When White House counsel Pat Cipollone opposes something Donald Trump is intent on doing, you know it's got to be bad. But it's exactly where Cipollone stands on Trump's deep desire to declassify U.S. intelligence on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which would be incredibly damaging to national security and U.S. intelligence-gathering moving forward.

Trump has always viewed the Russia investigation as a cloud hanging over his tenure from Day One, delegitimizing his big triumph in 2016 as impossible without the help of foreign interference. It may be the one instance where he's right. But his intention to declassify U.S. intelligence on Russia to support his pet project at any cost to national security has met with stiff opposition from CIA Director Gina Haspel and divided Republicans into two camps, according to The New York Times. You're either a Trumpist or a traitor.

Trump also remains miffed at the CIA over the agency's failure to neutralize the whistleblower complaint regarding the July 2019 call with Ukraine that ultimately led to his impeachment. But releasing the intelligence on Russia appears to be the main motivation behind Trump's fixation on axing Haspel, who has shared her concern with congressional members.

The Times writes that GOP lawmakers "came subtly to Ms. Haspel's defense" Tuesday when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell invited her to a meeting at his office—a signal of support for her, however weak. Of course, McConnell isn't willing to do something more overt because he's too busy kowtowing to Dear Leader so Republicans can get Trump’s help in the upcoming Georgia runoffs, which will decide the fate of the Senate majority.

Trump has already moved to consolidate power in the intelligence community, installing loyalists this week at key intelligence posts at the Defense Department and National Security Agency. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who oversees the 17-agency intelligence apparatus, is already a tried and true Trumpist. So the only major barriers to Trump's near-total takeover of the intelligence community are Haspel and FBI Director Chris Wray, who reportedly have both been on Trump's post-election chopping block.

Just imagine what Trump would have done if he had won.