The Trump administration on Monday began conducting mass firings at the top US intelligence agency, according to CNN.
The pink slips are reportedly being handed out to possibly hundreds of employees at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and are being conducted by President Donald Trump's hand-picked acting Director Bill Pulte, whose appointment attracted much controversy in Congress, as he has no background in intelligence.
"The deep state firings have begun," a source told CNN, who first reported the firings. However, the specific number of jobs being eliminated has not yet been released.
According to CNN, Pulte showed up to his new job a day early last week after asking for a list of every employee in the office, apparently even catching outgoing Director Tulsi Gabbard off-guard.
The two departments expected to be hit hardest by the mass downsizing are the National Counterterrorism Center and the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, sources told CNN.
The firings were executed despite warnings from top Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, who sent a letter to Pulte on Monday "warning him of the risks of making large cuts to the workforce," according to CNN.
"We are concerned by reports that you intend to fire or place on leave hundreds of Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) officers as soon as this week," Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes wrote in their letter.
"While there is room to consider responsible reductions to ODNI's workforce, any large cuts would follow on a substantial downsizing that has already occurred in 2025 and risk jeopardizing the mission of an organization explicitly created after 9/11 to prevent any future such terrorist attack," they continued.
Asked about the firings, the White House pointed to a recent social media post in which Trump said he had asked Pulte "to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies."
A separate source told NBC News that Pulte "had ordered staff members to identify 400 employees to be fired from the National Counterterrorism Center" in the coming weeks.
