CIA Director John Ratcliffe is undeterred by alleged concerns from his rank and file that officers who are fired under federal government cuts may take the nation’s secrets to foreign adversaries. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
"You’re just rolling the dice that these folks are gonna honor their secrecy agreement and not volunteer to a hostile intelligence service," an unnamed U.S. official reportedly told CNN.
The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently tried to fire 51 employees who worked on diversity issues, and newer employees are potentially on the chopping block to comply with a government-wide effort to root out probationary employees before they earn civil service protection.
A judge put the diversity firings on pause after agents sued to stop them. Kevin Carroll, an attorney who represents 19 of the CIA officers affected, said his clients were just "regular American intelligence officers" who had been assigned to complete diversity tasks on a rotational basis or in addition to their day jobs.
"Some of these people are like 18 years in, they're a couple years short of their pensions. So firing them instead of just letting them first look for another job in the agency or elsewhere in the intel community, is a lack of due process," he told Fox News Digital. "These people had regular career paths within the intel community and were slotted into these jobs for a bit. That's all."
JUDGE BLOCKS PARTS OF TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS TARGETING DEI, CITING FREE SPEECH
Elon Musk has led the charge to cull each agency of the government. (AP Images)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Foreign adversaries like China and Russia are known to target former U.S. intelligence officials, offering them large sums of money for the classified information they are privy to. The Justice Department has charged multiple former military and intel officials for providing information to China.
The CIA was known for friction with the White House during Trump's first administration but was hit with a wave of retirements in 2021 and 2022 as those who were recruited after the September 11, 2001, attacks hit their 20-year mark. The agency hit a recruiting high point again in 2024.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ratcliffe-shrugs-off-concerns-about-potential-threat-fired-agents-armed-cias-secrets-source