Donald Trump is working on a plan that would restructure the CIA — cutting staff at the agency’s headquarters in Langley and moving more agents to field posts across the globe, a report says.
“The view from the Trump team is the intelligence world [is] becoming completely politicized,” a source close to the President-elect told the Wall Street Journal.
The insider is one of the few people familiar with Trump’s planning and said his advisers were also working to scale back the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as well.
“They all need to be slimmed down,” the source said. “The focus will be on restructuring the agencies and how they interact.”
Some people who have been involved in the plan include Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), who has already been chosen to serve as Trump’s CIA director, and his national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency until 2013.
While many Republicans have suggested revamping the ODNI — which was established in 2004 to aid communication between the intelligence agencies following 9/11 — the task has been difficult.
Trump’s advisers have said that he has questioned the Central Intelligence Agency’s accuracy before in years past — specifically in 2002 and 2003 following the invasion of Iraq. But lately his sole focus has been on their claims that Russia had meddled in the presidential campaign and launched the hack of the DNC.
Even though top US officials have agreed with the CIA’s assessment — including Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress — Trump has chosen to blast the agency and praise Russia, instead.
The former communist nation has insisted that they were not involved in any hacking operation, and the billionaire has taken to Twitter over the past several months to express his solidarity.
One of his most recent posts came Wednesday, following an interview that WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange gave to Fox News, denying Russia’s involvement in the hacking of the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s advisers.
Thousands of the emails that were swiped during the hack have been published on WikiLeaks, but Assange claimed the Russians weren’t his source.
“Julian Assange said ‘a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta’—why was DNC so careless?” Trump tweeted after the interview. “Also said Russians did not give him the info!”
Intelligence officials told the Journal that they are ultimately disgusted with the President-elect’s social media behavior and disapproval of the CIA.
“It’s appalling,” one official said. “No president has ever taken on the CIA and come out looking good.”
Another official added, “It’s pretty horrifying to me that he’s siding with Assange over the intelligence agencies.”
The plans to cut back staff at Langley and move agents to posts across the world isn’t sitting well with officials, either.
“They are furious about it,” said one former senior intelligence official.