Gabbard seeks declassification, ODNI overhaul, revokes 37 clearances

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard this month moved to unseal a series of intelligence documents and overhaul the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, announcing plans to declassify materials she says show coordinated domestic surveillance and censorship and revoking the security clearances of 37 current and former intelligence officials. The actions, announced from Washington in late August, have set off a contentious dispute between the intelligence community and the White House over transparency, national security and politicization of intelligence.

Gabbard said the declassified materials will expose what she called a "blueprint for silencing dissent" and will include communications between federal agencies, social media companies and private partners that she alleges labeled critics of pandemic policies and election skeptics as national security threats. Her office also unveiled an ODNI reorganization plan it calls ODNI 2.0, which would cut the office's workforce by roughly 40 percent and reduce its budget by about $700 million, measures she argues are needed to end a "politicized and weaponized" intelligence apparatus.