Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Friday that she is cracking down on leaks coming from inside the intelligence community to left-wing media organizations.
Gabbard declared on X that “politically motivated” leaks by intelligence officials will come to an end and listed several examples of unauthorized leaks to news outlets.
“Our nation’s Intelligence Community must be focused on our national security mission. Politically motivated leaks undermine our national security and the trust of the American people, and will not be tolerated,” Gabbard said.
“Unfortunately, such leaks have become commonplace with no investigation or accountability. That ends now. We know of and are aggressively pursuing recent leakers from within the Intelligence Community and will hold them accountable.”
Gabbard highlighted an undisclosed leaker who shared classified information with the progressive Huffington Post and another who imparted information about Israel and Iran to the Washington Post. A third leaker shared details about the U.S.-Russia relationship to NBC News and a fourth disclosed activities from the national counterintelligence and security center, a division within Gabbard’s office, to The Record, a cybersecurity publication.
“Any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such,” Gabbard concluded. Gabbard did not specify whether the leakers she identified were terminated from their positions.
The intelligence leakers will likely be referred to Attorney General Pam Bondi for prosecution. Bondi has taken a hard stance against unauthorized leakers, warning them of severe consequences. Leaks from the intelligence community and the broader administrative state were a problem for President Donald Trump throughout his first term, helping entrench Trump’s distrust for the intelligence community and federal employees, who are overwhelmingly Democratic in their political affiliation.
“I’m grateful that @DNIGabbard is working to end leaking and the weaponization of the Intelligence Community. Another promise made and promise kept,” said Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. A national security hawk, Cotton played an important role in Gabbard’s confirmation, helping her overcome skepticism from GOP Senators about the foreign policy positions she held when she was a progressive Democrat.
Gabbard’s office is not the only branch of the Trump administration to begin cracking down on leakers to prevent entrenched employees from undermining law enforcement.
The Department of Homeland Security identified two alleged leakers within the agency last week who were disclosing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations to the media ahead of time. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said DHS was referring the leakers to the Justice Department for felony prosecutions and could face up to a decade in prison.