SCOOP: DNI, CIA fire back at Reuters "shouting match" smear
The CIA and DNI are jointly rejecting a Reuters story alleging strife between the two agencies when it comes to the Trump administration's mass document declassification.
The CIA and Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) are jointly pushing back on a Reuters story alleging discord between the two agencies spilled over when officials from the DNI arrived at a CIA warehouse to seize files related to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
Reuters, an outlet that employed a Hamas terrorist, alleged a “shouting” match ensued during the incident, which the DNI’s office denied to the Washington Reporter.
50 U.S. Code § 3023 section B notes that “the Director of National Intelligence shall have access to all national intelligence and intelligence related to the national security which is collected by any Federal department, agency, or other entity, except as otherwise provided by law or, as appropriate, under guidelines agreed upon by the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.”
Given President Donald Trump’s adamance that Gabbard and her agency run point on the mass declassifications that the administration has undertaken, the DNI likely has jurisdiction in the matter at hand.
Pursuant to Trump’s executive order demanding the declassification of massive tranches of documents relating to RFK’s assassination, DNI officials took boxes of documents from a Washington-area CIA site to move for their declassification.
Despite reports of strife at the time, both the DNI and CIA affirmed that the two agencies are working “hand-in-hand” to follow through on Trump’s directive, and the White House’s Steven Cheung seconded the message: “efforts by the legacy media to sow internal division are a distraction that will not work,” he said.
Ahead of the Reuters story, Alexa Henning — the deputy chief of staff at DNI — responded to the story, noting that “the more the legacy media regurgitates false deep state talking points with zero evidence the more we know we’re right over target.”
CIA and ODNI spokespeople confirmed following Reuter’s account that “ODNI and CIA have and will continue working hand-in-hand to release and declassify documents of public interest and execute President Trump’s mission of restoring trust in the intelligence community.” The statement is a rare joint missive from both agencies.
Gabbard’s track record as DNI suggests that a scuffle between her team and those at other agencies would be a deviation from the norm; the DNI has declassified almost half a million pages of records since Gabbard assumed her role, on everything from the MLK, JFK, and RFK assassinations to Obamagate — which was first covered by the Reporter.
“In every declassification effort, ODNI has worked hand in hand with interagency partners across the government including DoW, DOJ, FBI, CIA, NRO, State, NARA, and NSA to advance an Administration-wide commitment to transparency,” a DNI spokesperson noted to the Reporter.
“The notorious deep state sympathizers and shills at Reuters are, unsurprisingly, at it again with yet another hit piece based on lies from anonymously sourced hacks who seek to smear the successes of the Trump Administration to undermine our work to expose the truth about their decades of weaponization of government and intelligence against the American people,” a DNI spokesperson added. “Over the past eight months, the Intelligence Community has led historic interagency efforts to declassify information long withheld from the American people, and we have done so successfully on a scale never before accomplished by any administration. This progress towards transparency and accountability is the direct result of Director Gabbard’s commitment to the truth and delivering on President Trump’s promise to the American people. We are not slowing down, and we will continue to shine light on the deep state’s failures every chance we get.”
Reuters has, in recent weeks, been feuding with Gabbard and her team over a series of stories. In one instance, a reporter reached out to the DNI’s office about a story on “examples of retribution carried out by President Trump and his appointees during his second term.”
Olivia Coleman, Gabbard’s press secretary, responded to the Reuters inquiry with a fact-check of her own: “Since it appears that the fake news needs a reminder — Gabbard and Trump spent the last year exposing evidence of the Russia hoax, stripping DEI from the IC, building an elite workforce, cracking down on classified leaks, rooting out deep state bad actors, exposing Biden-era weaponization, saving taxpayers millions, declassifying nearly half a million documents...and a dozen more examples.”