- The CIA is reducing its contributions to some intelligence assessments amid disputes.
- The ODNI group accused of bypassing protocols, the CIA of blocking access.
- IG investigation claims CIA denied ODNI access to COVID-19 intelligence.
The CIA has stopped contributing to some intelligence assessments, including those related to the Iran war, produced by the office of the nation’s top spy, as disputes over intelligence sharing and areas of responsibility boil over, people familiar with the matter say.
Infighting between the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has been brewing for more than a year, disrupting collaboration on national security analyzes that presidents have long relied on to confront complex foreign challenges, said a U.S. official and three people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters.
At the heart of the disagreements is a clash over a task force set up in April 2025 by Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, according to the sources.
The CIA, led by Director John Ratcliffe, claims that Director Gabbard’s Initiative Group acted recklessly by circumventing traditional intelligence-sharing and declassification protocols, two of the sources said. ODNI officials say the CIA systematically blocked the group’s access to intelligence.
The breakdown in collaboration between intelligence agencies comes at a perilous time for the Trump administration, as the United States is embroiled in the Iran conflict and grappling with national security challenges ranging from Chinese military expansion to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
It also suggests that post-9/11 reforms, which created a director of national intelligence to coordinate the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, did not end the dysfunction.
“ODNI is supposed to be the oil of the system that keeps the arteries of the intelligence community flowing, that clears blockages,” said Beth Sanner, former deputy director of national intelligence during President Donald Trump’s first term.
“When you don’t do that, you create the risk that agencies will sort of retreat into their stovepipes and you set yourself up for intelligence failures.”
Gabbard said last week that she would step down as Trump’s top spy on June 30, citing her husband’s illness. Trump announced Tuesday that he was nominating Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.
“The president and policymakers continue to receive the best intelligence and analysis” from intelligence agencies, said Olivia Coleman, an ODNI spokeswoman, adding that ODNI and the agencies it oversees “communicate and collaborate daily with their CIA counterparts across the full range of intelligence products and operations.”
The director’s initiative group “operated within ODNI’s oversight authorities and in support of the president’s executive orders,” Coleman said.
Reuters reported in February that Gabbard had disbanded the group and reassigned its staff elsewhere in her agency, amid increased scrutiny of its activities by Congress.
“Under Ratcliffe’s leadership, the CIA quickly followed President Trump’s priorities by creating a more aggressive agency that took smart risks to outwit our adversaries and give the United States a decisive advantage,” said Liz Lyons, CIA director of public affairs.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle said Trump’s “peace through strength foreign policy is a proven approach that keeps America safe and deters global threats,” and that media efforts to sow internal division would fail.
“President Trump has full confidence in his entire exceptional national security team,” Ingle said.
Less cooperation on intelligence missions
The CIA’s decision to significantly reduce its input into assessments produced by Gabbard’s office is one of the most serious consequences of mutual distrust between the agencies.
The CIA was a major contributor to reports produced by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), America’s premier intelligence analysis agency. Reports carry weight, especially in times of war.
Two of the sources with direct knowledge of the matter said the assessments on Iran – where the US military has been fighting since February – are among those in which the agency no longer regularly participates.
The CIA and ODNI now operate largely as two separate analytical operations, the sources said.
At one point last year, the CIA, in response to friction between the two agencies, stopped publishing NIC reports on the Intelligence Community Internal Distribution Service it controls, briefly limiting the accessibility of analytical products, the sources said.
A U.S. official said the reports were only released for “a few hours” due to a “processing issue.”
The interagency friction began shortly after Gabbard took office in February 2025, the four sources said.
One of his first actions was to assert tighter control over the production of the Presidential Daily Brief, the sources said. The CIA had long played a leading role in compiling the brief, a highly classified daily compendium of intelligence reports prepared for the president.
Relations further deteriorated with the creation of the Director’s Initiative Group to “eliminate” the alleged politicization of the intelligence community, according to the sources.
The group also worked to declassify documents related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, as well as investigating the security of election voting machines and the origins of COVID-19.
Critics, including some former intelligence officials, say the group was created as a tool to retaliate against Trump’s perceived political enemies.
Task force members repeatedly pushed the CIA to share intelligence and documents needed to complete investigations assigned to ODNI, but felt it was not enough, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Elimination of CIA officers
In May 2025, Gabbard ousted two senior CIA officers who headed the NIC.
An intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal government matters said ODNI fired the two men “because they created a toxic work environment, as shown by a workforce investigation, and because they had a history of politicizing intelligence.”
The official did not provide any evidence to support these claims.
Then, in August, Gabbard revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former officials, revealing the identity of an undercover CIA officer stationed overseas.
Gabbard accused the 37 of politicizing and leaking intelligence, but did not provide proof.
Former officials and others have claimed the move was in part a retaliation for a 2017 intelligence assessment that Russia used a broad influence operation to sway the 2016 presidential vote in favor of Trump.
Tensions between the CIA and ODNI became public last month when a CIA officer assigned to the Director’s Initiatives Group testified before a Senate committee that the agency had blocked the group’s access to intelligence on the origins of COVID-19.
That dispute triggered an investigation by the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General, an independent watchdog agency housed in ODNI, two people familiar with the investigation said.
Reuters could not determine the scope of the investigation.
