{"id":4237,"date":"2026-11-11T22:03:47","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T17:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4237"},"modified":"2026-11-11T22:03:47","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T17:03:47","slug":"house-democrats-to-investigate-trumps-handling-of-us-spy-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4237","title":{"rendered":"House Democrats to investigate Trump’s handling of US spy agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Democrats in the US House \u200bof Representatives, who will control key committees next year, are preparing investigations into what they say was President Donald Trump\u2019s politicisation and gutting of US spy agencies, including whether analysts have censored themselves to avoid retaliation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely evidence that analysts are hesitant to write on topics that they think might be controversial. There\u2019s absolutely evidence of a decline in morale in the analytic community because of the pressures that they are under,\u201d US Representative Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat who \u200bwill become chairman of the House intelligence committee in January, told Reuters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

There has been little scrutiny of the \u200bstate of the US intelligence community by the Republican-run Congress during the first two years of Trump\u2019s second \u2060term, during which the administration fired or forced out hundreds of officers and disrupted the production of analyses on key issues, including Iran.<\/p>\n

Himes said \u200bthat would change after he takes over the committee in January, when Democrats assume control of the House of Representatives and the Senate following \u200btheir sweep of the November 3 midterm elections.<\/p>\n

He did not disclose how the investigations would proceed, but said that one focus would be what he called retaliatory firings.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re going to tell the story of the patriots who were fired because they said something inconsistent with what the president wanted to be true,\u201d \u200bHimes said.<\/p>\n

Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard last year cut her agency\u2019s staff by about 40%. CIA Director John Ratcliffe publicly pledged \u200bto reduce his workforce by more than 1,000 positions over several years. Both offered deferred-resignation programs that provided pay and benefits for employees who chose to \u200cleave.<\/p>\n

The cuts \u2060included the firings of longtime intelligence analysts and officers from top posts, including at the National Intelligence Council, the analytical group overseen by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.<\/p>\n

At least two of those fired were analysts involved in an assessment that contradicted the White House\u2019s official policy on Venezuela.<\/p>\n

The reductions have been viewed inside the intelligence agencies as a continuation of Trump\u2019s campaign against what he called the \u201cdeep state,\u201d a move critics say \u200bhas drained the community of experience \u200band expertise.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/em> previously reported that \u2060some of Gabbard\u2019s projects affiliated with her Director\u2019s Initiative Group, a task force that revisited the 2020 election and the origins of COVID-19, created tensions inside the intelligence community.<\/p>\n

<\/a>BREAKDOWN IN INTELLIGENCE SHARING<\/h3>\n

That was particularly the case \u200bafter Gabbard\u2019s office revoked the security clearances of current and former intelligence officials a year ago.<\/p>\n

Gabbard\u2019s actions \u200bcaused a breakdown \u2060in intelligence sharing and cooperation inside the intelligence community and with Congress, as Reuters previously reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment the intelligence community stops telling the truth to national leaders, you get into an Iraq war because of weapons of mass destruction that don\u2019t exist,\u201d Himes said.<\/p>\n

Himes said he had reviewed a statutorily \u2060mandated intelligence \u200bcommunity survey showing that, in 2025, the workforce had begun to \u201cfeel very real political \u200bpressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added he was working to declassify other internal intelligence community reporting that could potentially underscore the effects of the firings and politicisation.<\/p>\n

The committee, Himes said, will also probe the administration\u2019s \u200brelationships with defence and intelligence contractors and US covert efforts overseas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats in the US House \u200bof Representatives, who will control key committees next year, are preparing investigations into what they say was President Donald Trump\u2019s politicisation and gutting of US spy agencies, including whether analysts have censored themselves to avoid retaliation. \u201cThere\u2019s absolutely evidence that analysts are hesitant to write on topics that they think might be controversial. There\u2019s absolutely evidence of a decline in morale in the analytic community because of the pressures that they are under,\u201d US Representative Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat who \u200bwill become chairman of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}