DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s Chief Of Staff Ordered Changes To Intelligence Report In Order To ‘Not To Embarrass’ Trump

An email from Joe Kent, the chief of staff for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, ordered officials to edit an assessment so that the document would not be used against President Donald Trump or Gabbard.

Gabbard’s nomination had drawn fire from foreign policy experts due to her close ties to dictators like former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

On April 3, Kent emailed a group of intelligence officials, stating that the document needs to be written and more analytical work done to prevent the information from being used against Gabbard and Trump.

On Feb. 25, Kent urged the analysts to rewrite the document, which initially stated that the administration had no legal authority to deport Venezuelan immigrants without due process. Kent urged the officials to rewrite the document by linking the Tren de Aragua gang to the Venezuelan government to justify the deportations under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.

Despite these orders to rewrite the document, the final version still contains a contradiction to Trump’s justifications for deporting immigrants without due process.

The National Intelligence Council has already made two assessments on the relationship between Tren de Aragua and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Based on these two documents, the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that the gang is not under the control of the Venezuelan government and does not carry out criminal orders from the Venezuelan government in the U.S.

In late March, Kent wrote to a group of people, including the acting head of the National Intelligence Council at the time, Michael Collins. He requested that they reconsider the contents of the assessment. He wrote to the group that a new document would need to be produced, in which he wished to understand how the group had deduced that the relationship between the Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government was the opposite of what had been stated by the administration.

In mid-May, Gabbard fired Collins and his deputy from the National Intelligence Council.

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Article by Sherry Chen