CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Kruse prepare to testify during the House Select Intelligence Committee hearing titled "Worldwide Threats Assessment," on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
"Mr. President, the CIA is being restructured at your direction to focus on our core mission and to eliminate the political – the well-documented politicization that has taken place in the intelligence community from bad actors in the past to focus on our core mission and to Make America Safe Again," Ratcliffe added, thanking Trump for the opportunity without elaborating further.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also referenced efforts to combat "politicization" within the intelligence community at the Cabinet meeting.
"I'm grateful to have the privilege of leading the intelligence community towards ending the weaponization. Politicization of the intelligence community has gone on for far too long," Gabbard said. "And building out what is truly a lean and agile and effective intelligence community that is helping you deliver that promise to the American people of safety, security, and freedom."
"We're working every day to hold the deep state accountable to end the politicization of weaponization of the intelligence community," Gabbard continued. "This past week, I sent three criminal referrals for illegal and unauthorized leaks to the media of classified intelligence for prosecution. We have 11 more that are under investigation. We've revoked, at your direction, 67 security clearances, and we continue the work of declassifying documents."
The U.S. government has already declassified documents surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and Gabbard said she was working to declassify more documents around the assassination of former U.S. Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy – the father of Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.
President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 30, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
One of those agencies was the CIA. Ratcliffe told the gathering of Cabinet secretaries that the CIA "provided the intelligence that led to the apprehension of the Abbey Gate bomber, who is now being prosecuted by our great attorney general and providing a measure of justice to those 13 families that suffered as a result of that disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, during the last administration."
Trump reiterated at the Cabinet meeting that what happened at Abbey Gate was a "disgrace" under the Biden administration and that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is working on prosecuting the alleged planner of the attack. The Justice Department announced last month that ISIS-K member Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as "Jafar," has been arrested on federal terrorism charges in connection to the attack and was extradited to the U.S. He made a brief appearance in Virginia federal court.
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Ratcliffe also told the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the CIA, at Trump's direction, has negotiated and secured the release of Americans like Mark Fogel and Ksenia Karelina, "who had been wrongfully detained, sending the message that you will forget about no Americans that are being held in other places unfairly and unjustly."
Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cia-being-restructured-eliminate-well-documented-politicization-ratcliffe