Magic Eight Ball Redux 🎱

Just hours before his successor is expected to be confirmed by the Senate, acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte on Tuesday announced what appear to be sweeping staff reductions at the embattled intelligence coordination hub. “Good News! In addition to the Historic DECLASSIFICATIONS (Transparency!) by the President, we are, this morning, Executing a 5th and Near Final Round of TERMINATIONS, an approximately 30% Staff Reduction from Weeks Ago,” Pulte posted on his social media account Tuesday morning. “The Intelligence Community must protect the American people, NOT the political whims of the bloated and corrupt elite class.” Pulte’s announcement of a 30 percent cut, depending on the baseline for when the dismissals started, could amount to the elimination of more than 300 staff at the ODNI, which is charged with coordinating intelligence collected by the other 17 members of the U.S. spy community and overseeing their budgets. It comes the same day the Senate is expected to vote on his full-time replacement, current top Manhattan federal prosecutor Jay Clayton, as the next head of the ODNI. .... The cuts appear to mark the latest effort by the Trump administration to slash the beleaguered intel hub, which lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have criticized in recent years as unnecessarily large. It would also defy warnings from Democrats last month, who said Pulte — the head of the government’s mortgage regulator — lacked the experience to make large-scale cuts without endangering U.S. national security. Read More [HERE] 🎱 @Magic8BallRedux