President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence is taking action against federal employees within the intelligence community for alleged ties to explicit conversations on an internal agency messaging board.
DNI Tulsi Gabbard put out a directive Tuesday to terminate the employment of and revoke the security clearances of employees who participated in obscene and explicit chatrooms on the National Security Agency's (NSA) "Intelink" messaging platform.
"There are over 100 people from across the intelligence community that contributed to and participated in... what is really just an egregious violation of trust. What to speak of, like basic rules and standards around professionalism," Gabbard said on "Jesse Watters Primetime" Tuesday.
NSA INVESTIGATES ‘SECRET SEX CHATS’ UNDER GUISE OF DEI ON INTERNAL AGENCY MESSAGE BOARD
Federal employees are under investigation for allegedly misusing an internal agency messaging board to dish on their sexual fantasies under the guise of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), officials say.
Chat logs from the National Security Agency's (NSA) "Intelink" messaging platform, obtained by researchers from the conservative Manhattan Institute reportedly via sources within the NSA, revealed employees from various intelligence agencies discussing their experiences with gender-reassignment surgery, artificial genitalia, hormone therapy, polyamory and pronoun usage. Some of these agencies reportedly include the Defense Intelligence Agency, U.S. Naval Intelligence and the NSA.
After the Intelink chat logs were released Monday, an NSA spokesperson indicated to Fox News Digital that it was "actively investigating" potential abuses of the agency-operated messaging platform.
"We got to take a step back because this is just barely scratching the surface," Gabbard told Fox News host Jesse Watters.
"When you see what these people were saying,... they were brazen in using an NSA platform intended for professional use to conduct this kind of really, really horrific behavior. And they were brazen in doing this because when was the last time anyone was really held accountable? Certainly not over the last four years, certainly not over the last 10, maybe 20 years, and we look at some of the biggest violations of the American people's trust in the intelligence community."
BIPARTISAN LETTER WARNS GABBARD NEW UK ORDER FOR BACKDOOR APPLE DATA COULD JEOPARDIZE AMERICANS
Gabbard previously called the uncovered behavior "unacceptable," writing on social media that "those involved WILL be held accountable."
"These disgusting chat groups were immediately shut down when [the president] issued his EO ending the DEI insanity the Biden Admin was obsessed with," Gabbard wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday evening. "Our IC must be focused on our core mission: ensuring the safety, security, and freedom of the American people."
The chat logs in question stemmed from DEI-focused groups hosted on the NSA's Intelink Messenger, titled "LBTQA" and "IC_Pride_TWG," according to the Manhattan Institute's Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow. Rufo said the sources that approached him indicated the sexually explicit chats were given legitimacy through the NSA's DEI efforts, which the agency has described as "not only mission critical, but mission imperative."
The messages were part of DEI-focused employee resource groups that had been hijacked by activists who "spent all day" holding meetings with titles such as "Privilege," "Ally Awareness," "Pride," and "Transgender Community Inclusion," the source who leaked the chat logs reportedly informed the Manhattan Institute.
Gabbard noted Tuesday's action holding federal employees "accountable" is "just beginning" and a part of the Trump administration's larger efforts to carry out the mandate from the American people.
Fox News Digital's Alec Schemmel and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.