- Saturday, May 17, 2025
The two officials are Mike Collins, acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, and his deputy Maria Langan-Riekhof
By: India Weekly
TWO senior US intelligence officials have been fired by director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard because of their alleged opposition to president Donald Trump.
The two officials are Mike Collins, acting chair of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), and his deputy Maria Langan-Riekhof.
The NIC is the highest analytical body of the intelligence community and plays a key role in the nation’s spy services.
It collates intelligence gathered from different agencies to form comprehensive assessments that are used by the White House and senior national security officials.
The council had produced an assessment contradicting the legal argument used by Trump to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua (TDA).
The Trump administration had claimed that TDA is coordinating its US activities with the Venezuelan government of president Nicolas Maduro to invoke the 1789 Alien Enemies Act and justify deportations of alleged gang members to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
The NIC assessment was released last week through a Freedom of Information Act request. It contradicted the administration’s claim about the gang’s connections to Venezuela’s government.
“While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” the assessment concluded.
The document came to light by way of a Freedom of Information Act request by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit organization.
Gabbard’s office claimed the action was taken “to end the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community.”
Her deputy chief of staff Alexa Henning referred to the sacked officials “Biden holdovers”.
Both Collins and Langan-Riekhof have over 25 years of intelligence experience and served presidents of both parties.
Meanwhile, the top Democrat on the US House intelligence committee, Jim Himes, has called on Gabbard to produce proof of the alleged political bias that led her to ouster to the two officials.
Himes said in a letter to Gabbard that she had failed to inform the congressional intelligence panels of her decision to oust Collins and Langan-Riekhof.
“According to anonymous sources cited in the Fox News story, you terminated these two individuals due to their supposed ‘political bias,’” Himes wrote.
“This is an exceptionally serious allegation to make against career intelligence officers – and therefore an allegation that requires supporting evidence.”
He asked Gabbard to give the committee that proof by May 21.
Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, accused Gabbard in a statement of “purging intelligence officials over a report that the Trump administration finds politically inconvenient.”
