Intelligence officers who managed the contesting memo contra-asserting White House allegations about Venezuelan gang are dismissed by Gabbard
Rewritten Article:
Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, has given the boot to two top intelligence officials, Michael Collins and Maria Langan-Riekhof, who led a recent intelligence evaluation that contradicted President Donald Trump's assertions about the gang Tren de Aragua being under the control of the Venezuelan regime. Two sources have confirmed this development.
This assessment weakened the grounds for Trump to invoke the ancient 1798 law, the Alien Enemies Act, authorizing the summary deportation of Tren de Aragua (TdA) members present in the U.S., bypassing standard legal processes.
Gabbard chose to terminate Collins, the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Langan-Riekhof, the council vice chair, both career intelligence analysts with substantial experience. The reasons behind their dismissal remain scant, with one official stating, "She dismissed these individuals because they were unable to provide unbiased intelligence."
Alexa Henning, Gabbard's deputy chief of staff, expressed on social media that the officials were ousted due to politicizing intelligence. According to an email from Gabbard's spokesperson, Olivia Coleman, the move was taken to "end the weaponization and politicization of the Intelligence Community."
Last month, the National Intelligence Council, responsible for analyses based on information from the nation's intelligence agencies, released a memo detailing the relationship between TdA and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's regime. While confirmation from all other intelligence agencies, except the FBI, backed this conclusion, TdA was found to operate independently of Maduro's regime.
Trump and his administration have repeatedly asserted that Maduro oversees TdA, citing this as the basis for invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a law previously invoked only in wartime. News of the assessment's conclusions first surfaced in a Washington Post report.
It remains uncertain if Collins and Langan-Riekhof contributed directly to the assessment, but the council's leadership typically approves significant analyses, as per a former intelligence official.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer, who has advocated for the dismissal of some top national security officials, recently called out Collins and the National Intelligence Council on her social media platform, stating, "The NIC senior officials should be fired."
In response to the dismissals, Democrats and former senior intelligence officials have voiced their concern, with some accusing Gabbard of punishing experienced analysts for not backing the president's agenda. In an interview with MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, former CIA director John Brennan commented, "This goes to have real repercussions for employees within the intelligence community."
He further explained that the dismissals send a message to analysts, "telling them not to provide objective analysis as they are supposed to, but rather to stick to the president's line." Jonathan Panikoff, a former National Intelligence Council analyst, echoed this sentiment on social media, describing the organization as the beating heart of apolitical U.S. intelligence analysis.
Senate Intelligence Committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner, criticized Gabbard for purging intelligence officials over a report that contradicts the Trump administration's political stance. House Intelligence Committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, has written a letter to Gabbard, asking for clarification regarding the firing of the two senior officials within a week. In the letter, Himes pressed for evidence to support claims of political bias and adherence to statutory requirements for keeping congressional intelligence committees informed of personnel changes.
- The dismissal of Michael Collins and Maria Langan-Riekhof, two top intelligence officials, has sparked concerns among Democrats and former senior intelligence officials, as some accuse Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, of punishing these experienced analysts for failing to align with President Trump's agenda in the matter of policy-and-legislation related to the gang Tren de Aragua.
- The move to terminate Collins and Langan-Riekhof, both career intelligence analysts, has been justified by Gabbard's deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, as an attempt to end the politicization of intelligence within the policy-and-legislation arena, particularly in regards to the general-news coverage of Tren de Aragua's relationship with the Venezuelan regime.
