WASHINGTON (AP) — The Office of the Director of National Intelligence will dramatically reduce its workforce and cut its budget by more than $700 million annually, the Trump administration announced Wednesday.

The move amounts to a major downsizing of the office responsible for coordinating the work of 18 intelligence agencies, including on counterterrorism and counterintelligence, as President Donald Trump has tangled with assessments from the intelligence community.

His administration also this week has revoked the security clearances of dozens of former and current officials, while last month declassifying documents meant to call into question long-settled judgments about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“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,” Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said in a statement announcing a more than 40% workforce reduction.

She added: “Ending the weaponization of intelligence and holding bad actors accountable are essential to begin to earn the American people’s trust which has long been eroded.”

  • @BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    1318 hours ago

    I was saying that immediately after the Alaska meeting, we would hear HitlerPig spouting Russian Propaganda, and pro- Russian policies would suddenly become important.

    Here we are.

    • chonkyninja
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      19 hours ago

      Our enemies are about to fuck around and find the fuck out.

    • @BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      417 hours ago

      The Republican Party is as dead as the Whigs. This is the MAGA Party. We need to tie all their treason and corruption directly to them for all of history to remember.

  • iridebikes
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    3323 hours ago

    Hobbling our intelligence agencies for Putin isn’t going to win anyone over.

  • teft
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    2523 hours ago

    Hmmm. I wonder why they would gut intelligence agencies at the same time as they are gutting elections oversight, foreign influence, and internet intrusion detections agencies…

  • @hddsx@lemmy.ca
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    522 hours ago

    I’m happy that the intelligence office has been slashed to be proportional to the amount of intelligence in the federal government right now. I’d argue that perhaps they need to slash more to be proportional

  • NoneOfUrBusiness
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    -122 hours ago

    I’m happy with this news, but I do happen to hate America and everything it stands for (except the Bill of Rights, that’s cool) so it’s weird that I’m happy with the decisions of a nationalist regime.