‘Counterintelligence Disaster’: CIA Reportedly Sent Trump WH An Unclassified Email Naming All Recent Hires
AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
As part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce and break the so-called “deep state,” the CIA reportedly sent the “White House an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years,” reported the New York Times on Wednesday.
The Times noted that former CIA officials warned that the unsecured email “risked the list leaking to adversaries” and that those hired in recent years were typically recruited and hired for their expertise in aiding missions to combat China. The Time reported:
The list included first names and the first initial of the last name of the new hires, who are still on probation — and thus easy to dismiss. It included a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China, and whose identities are usually closely guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify them.
The agency normally would prefer not to put these names in an unclassified system. Some former officials said they worried that the list could be passed on to a team of newly hired young software experts working with Elon Musk and his government efficiency team. If that happened, the names of the employees might be more easily targeted by China, Russia or other foreign intelligence services.
One former agency officer called the reporting of the names in an unclassified email a “counterintelligence disaster.”
The email was sent as the Trump administration has also offered a buyout to every employee at the CIA.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on Tuesday that the agency had offered its entire workforce the option to quit and retain eight months’ pay and benefits. Critics of Trump’s buyout offers have warned that they incentivize the best employees, those with the most lucrative skills in the job market, to leave first.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, a close Trump ally, defended the move in a statement saying, “Director Ratcliffe is moving swiftly to ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the Administration’s national security priorities. These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position the CIA to deliver on its mission.”
Read the full New York Times report here.
