Acting DNI Pulte Removes 51 from Agency – Six Fired and 45 “sent back to their home agencies”

Posted originally on CTH on June 23, 2026 | Sundance

CBS is reporting on events within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. As CTH previously outlined, Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte is following a very predictable path. {GO DEEP}

The part of the CBS report that tells the story is: “Six career and political intelligence staff were terminated and 45 were sent back to their home agencies, according to three sources familiar with the personnel moves.” … “One source characterized the cuts as thoughtful and methodical. No staffers have been removed from the counterterrorism group.”

So, who was removed? Well, I’m certainly not the Nostradamus of USIC, but if I were to hazard an educated guess it looks like the National Intelligence Council – Directorate of Analysis, just lost six political staff, and 45 people from the various liaison desks were ‘sent back to their home agencies.’

As we noted last year, Tulsi Gabbard took the National Intelligence Council (NIC) out of the CIA – fired the heads, then putting the assembly back under the control of the ODNI. However, highly political operatives within the former CIA-controlled Directorate of Analysis (the former home of Eric Ciarmella) were still problematic. It looks like Director Pulte just eliminated the remaining DoA rats.

The 45 returned to their ‘home agencies‘ were certainly from the liaison desks inside the DNI.

I’m not sure if that represents 45 from across all the desks, or the complete elimination of some overstaffed liaison desks. That said, given the nature of the leaking was recently to CNN (State Dept leaks to CNN), I am somewhat confident the State Dept liaison office inside the DNI is now empty office space. [Just a hunch 😂]

Please remember, our predictive public discussions at CTH are in the strictest confidence.

(VIA CBS) – Just over 50 career and political intelligence staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have been removed from their roles since Bill Pulte became the agency’s acting director, Friday.

Six career and political intelligence staff were terminated and 45 were sent back to their home agencies, according to three sources familiar with the personnel moves.

Pulte has been asking deputies and other directors for suggestions about cuts. Some of the ODNI deputies pushed for more cuts, but Pulte said that the 51 was enough for now, one of the sources said.

One source characterized the cuts as thoughtful and methodical. No staffers have been removed from the counterterrorism group.

No further firings are planned for now, two of the sources said.

The cuts follow hundreds of staff reductions last year by former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who stepped down last week. Last year’s planned downsizing sought to bring the office’s headcount from 2,000 to around 1,300.

President Trump has pushed for further cuts, directing Pulte to “execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office” in a Truth Social post earlier this month.

[…] Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence panels, warned Pulte against making large-scale staff cuts, calling it an inappropriate course of action for an acting official without national security experience. (more)

Senator Warner haz sad.

Meanwhile in related news: “This sets up a stalemate as several Democrats have said they will not support reauthorizing Section 702 while Pulte remains Trump’s acting DNI pick.” {source}