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Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is moving the assembly of the president\u2019s daily intelligence brief from the C.I.A. headquarters to her own complex, according to officials briefed on the move.<\/p>\n
The brief, a summary of intelligence and analysis about global hot spots and national security threats, is overseen and presented to the president by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. But C.I.A. officers write much of the analysis in the document and produce it, pulling together articles and graphics on the agency\u2019s classified computer systems.<\/p>\n
Ms. Gabbard\u2019s decision comes as President Trump has openly mused to aides over time about whether the office she leads \u2014 which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to improve interagency coordination \u2014 should continue to exist, according to two people with knowledge of his remarks. Ms. Gabbard has discussed Mr. Trump\u2019s concerns with him directly and has considered how to overhaul the office, according to one official.<\/p>\n
The decision was announced internally on Tuesday. C.I.A. staff were told in a memo from the agency\u2019s directorate of analysis that such a move had been considered several times over the years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The memo, which was described to The New York Times, said there was \u201cmuch to be worked out about transition timelines and our own processes.\u201d The infrastructure to create the briefing is sizable and owned by the C.I.A. and could be difficult to move or replicate at Ms. Gabbard\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Moving the production of the daily brief was one of two decisions Ms. Gabbard made on Tuesday. She also ordered the National Intelligence Council to relocate to her headquarters.<\/p>\n
The moves are part of an effort by Ms. Gabbard to shore up the role of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and ensure that she has oversight and control over two of the most important functions of her post. Critics of her agency argue that its work should be folded back into the C.I.A., whose current director is John Ratcliffe.<\/p>\n
An official from Ms. Gabbard\u2019s office said that physically moving the daily brief was intended to speed response times to certain queries. The official said the move was meant to offer the president more \u201ctimely and actionable\u201d intelligence.<\/p>\n
A C.I.A. spokeswoman declined to comment.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, did not address Ms. Gabbard\u2019s move of the daily brief to her headquarters, instead saying that she is \u201cclearly doing an excellent job keeping the president constantly informed of national security developments around the world\u201d and adding that Mr. Trump has \u201cfull confidence in her.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Former intelligence officials raised questions about the move. Beth Sanner, who oversaw the president\u2019s intelligence brief in the first Trump administration, said it would be \u201ca huge mistake.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately and ironically, it would probably reduce the O.D.N.I. role because it would separate their oversight from the C.I.A. teams doing most of the work,\u201d Ms. Sanner said. She added, \u201cIt would create inefficiencies and risk miscommunication and mistakes. Ironically, over time, this probably will lessen O.D.N.I.\u2019s oversight role and give C.I.A. more control \u2014 out of sight, out of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
The C.I.A. memo said that while the directorate of analysis role in supporting the daily brief would evolve, \u201cwe will remain laser-focused on the president\u2019s and Director Ratcliffe\u2019s priorities and our core mission \u2014 generating and delivering insight with impact, free from political or personal bias.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is not clear how many C.I.A. personnel assigned to the P.D.B., as the brief is called, and to the National Intelligence Council will move. People familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to discuss internal concerns publicly, said a number of employees at the agency were looking for new assignments to avoid moving to Ms. Gabbard\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
The relocation of the National Intelligence Council was reported earlier by Fox News<\/a>, which also reported that Ms. Gabbard had removed the acting chair of the council, Michael Collins, and his deputy. Mr. Collins is a senior C.I.A. officer who had been detailed to the council, and current and former officials confirmed that he has been sent back to the C.I.A.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Collins is known for his expertise on China. During the Biden administration, he helped with the strategic planning that led to the C.I.A.\u2019s China Mission Center. Mr. Ratcliffe has praised the focus on China and promised to expand those efforts.<\/p>\n Mr. Collins and the council had been caught up in a dispute over the truth of Mr. Trump\u2019s claim in March<\/a> that a criminal gang, Tren de Aragua, is controlled by Venezuela\u2019s government. That claim is a central premise of Mr. Trump\u2019s invocation of a wartime law to deport people accused of being members of the gang to a Salvadoran prison without due process<\/a>.<\/p>\n In February, the intelligence community circulated an assessment that reached the opposite conclusion<\/a>. The administration asked the National Intelligence Council to take a second look at the available evidence, but in an April memo, intelligence agencies reaffirmed the findings contradicting Mr. Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who has successfully lobbied<\/a> the administration to fire other security officials, then attacked the National Intelligence Council on social media<\/a> as \u201ccareer anti-Trump bureaucrats\u201d who \u201cneed to be replaced if they want to promote open borders,\u201d posting images of Mr. Collins\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and an article about the council\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n An official briefed on the matter denied that Mr. Collins\u2019s removal was connected to the Venezuela assessment or to Ms. Loomer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Before the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in 2004, the C.I.A. was responsible for assembling the President\u2019s Daily Brief and overseeing the National Intelligence Council, which brings together disparate intelligence agencies to examine various issues and writes intelligence estimates and other assessments.<\/p>\n After the director of national intelligence took responsibility for both, the operations remained at the C.I.A.\u2019s headquarters in Langley, Va. just outside Washington. The view was that analysts and officers working on the products would be closer to the C.I.A. analysts who drafted most of the articles. The headquarters of the director of national intelligence, known as Liberty Crossing, is a few miles away.<\/p>\n But an official briefed on the decision to move the P.D.B. and the National Intelligence Council to the headquarters of the director of national intelligence said it would allow Ms. Gabbard and her staff members to reshape the brief in response to questions from Mr. Trump and other policymakers. It was not clear how that would be different from the existing system.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump picked Ms. Gabbard for the role relatively early in the presidential transition. He has questioned whether the office needs to continue to operate and has discussed with Ms. Gabbard how to overhaul it, according to one person with knowledge of the discussions. Some observers of the intelligence community have also suggested that it may have outlived its utility, though that discussion is parallel to one about whether it has grown well past the size it was originally intended to be.<\/p>\n Controlling the production of the daily brief may give Ms. Gabbard a more direct line to Mr. Trump and his core circle in the West Wing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n An array of senior officials are given a version of the brief and many have a personal briefer. Those officials often send questions or requests back to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.<\/p>\n Congress gave the office oversight of the National Intelligence Council and President\u2019s Daily Brief to ensure that it evaluated information from all the spy agencies, not just the C.I.A. Ms. Gabbard\u2019s decision would put the people working on the brief closer to those responsible for overseeing the ultimate product.<\/p>\n Since taking the role, Ms. Gabbard has frequently sought to communicate her attentiveness to Mr. Trump\u2019s stated interests on her social media feed, including by saying that all files related to President John F. Kennedy\u2019s assassination would be immediately declassified without redactions, as the president wanted.<\/p>\n