Pulte Fires Dozens More at ODNI as Trump's 'Declassify Whatever You Want' Order Stands

Since Pulte assumed the acting DNI role on June 19, the intelligence purge at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has moved in two distinct waves.

The Numbers So Far

The first round, reported by CBS News around June 24, removed just over 50 people: six career and political staffers terminated outright, 45 sent back to their home agencies. William Ruger, the deputy director of national intelligence for mission integration — the official who oversees the President's Daily Brief and the National Intelligence Council — was placed on administrative leave, according to three CBS News sources with direct knowledge of the moves.

Two of those sources told CBS that no further firings were planned at that point. That held for roughly a week.

CNBC reported that Pulte sent out a new batch of termination notices on Thursday to dozens of additional intelligence officials, citing an anonymous intelligence official who spoke out of fear of reprisal. The stated rationale from the administration, per that official: removing people "who they believe are deep state" and who allegedly failed to give decision-makers complete intelligence pictures. The White House and ODNI had not immediately responded to requests for comment on Friday.

Pulte's Background and the Conflict of Interest Question

Pulte simultaneously leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency. According to CNBC, he has used that FHFA perch to investigate Trump opponents for alleged mortgage fraud. He assumed the acting DNI role on June 19, gaining access to the most sensitive U.S. intelligence data — the same day CNN reported he was already considering firing hundreds of ODNI staffers.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is retiring, did not mince words in comments reported by The Guardian. "My guess is based on his past experience, it's going to be another hot, steaming pile of Doge shit," Tillis said, calling Pulte "an incompetent sycophant and not the right person to lead DNI" who is "undermining ultimately what the confirmed administrator should be doing."

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, offered a more measured take: he told reporters earlier in June that ODNI has "grown far beyond its original mandate" and that staff detailed from other agencies should be returned there. Cotton did not endorse mass firings by an acting director.

The Democratic Objection

Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees, sent a letter to Pulte warning that large cuts by an unconfirmed acting official with no national security experience risk "jeopardizing the mission of an organization explicitly created after 9/11 to prevent any future such terrorist attack." ODNI was built specifically because the CIA, NSA, and FBI failed to share information before September 11. Gutting the coordination layer — rapidly, without congressional input, under a dual-hatted acting director — is a legitimate structural concern regardless of whether ODNI had become bloated.

CBS News noted that Pulte's team said no counterterrorism staff were among those removed in the first round, and one source characterized the initial cuts as "thoughtful and methodical." Whether the second round maintains that discipline is not yet established.

The Declassification Order

On July 1, Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews that he has given Pulte broad personal authority to release classified records. "I told him you can declassify whatever you want," Trump said, adding that Pulte is only filling the seat temporarily — "maybe a month or two months" — until Jay Clayton completes Senate confirmation.

Trump offered no timeline for specific document releases and said the decision now rests with Pulte. There is no public list of what Pulte plans to declassify or what review process, if any, governs those decisions.

Clayton's Confirmation Is Stalled

The Senate Intelligence Committee scheduled a hearing for Clayton on June 17. Trump canceled it hours before it was set to begin, posting on Truth Social that Pulte would remain in place. No replacement hearing date has been publicly confirmed. That means the official with blanket declassification authority and the power to fire career intelligence officers is a dual-hatted acting appointee operating without Senate confirmation — a status that drew bipartisan criticism before the second wave of firings began.

The unresolved question: how many of the new termination notices represent officials with operational counterterrorism or foreign intelligence roles, and whether any of those cuts touch the coordination functions ODNI was created to perform after 9/11. No public accounting of the new notices has been released.