DHS intelligence branch planning to shrink staffing by 75% amid elevated threat level
CNN
The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to cut nearly 75% of staffing at the agency’s office tasked with developing and sharing threat intelligence with state and local partners, according to an official familiar with the plans.
The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to cut nearly 75% of staffing at the agency’s office tasked with developing and sharing threat intelligence with state and local partners, according to an official familiar with the plans. The planned cuts of about 750 at the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which has a staff of around 1,000, are part of the department’s efforts to remove what leadership considers redundant roles or those working on “non-critical programs,” DHS said in a statement Thursday. Some Democratic lawmakers asked DHS to pause the cuts, raising concerns over the elevated threat environment intelligence officials have reported. The roughly 275 staffers left after the planned cuts will still be tasked with the mission established in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US –- to provide intelligence related to threats to the homeland to local and state law enforcement as well as other government officials. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we focused on getting the Department of Homeland Security back to its core mission of prioritizing American safety and enforcing our laws,” the department said. “DHS component leads have identified redundant positions and non-critical programs within the Office of Intelligence and Analysis.” In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Democratic lawmakers on the House and Senate committees on homeland security implored the officials to reconsider the planned cuts.
CNN’s 5 Things AM brings you the news you need to know every morning
The two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat in a secondary strike against a suspected drug vessel in early September did not appear to have radio or other communications devices, the top military official overseeing the strike told lawmakers on Thursday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his congressional briefings.
As Chad Curry busily ferries his teenage children through the streets of their Chicago neighborhood of West Ridge, he eyes passing vehicles with a skepticism he didn’t have just a few months ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson is a political survivor, weathering crisis after crisis since his unlikely ascent two years ago.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan are well matched, rhetorically forceful opposites. And they have been clashing for more than a decade over an increasingly relevant question of presidential power: How easy should it be for the president to fire the heads of independent agencies?
The Army gynecologist described in a recent lawsuit as a “predator in uniform” is now being held in the Bell County Jail in Texas, “after apparently violating conditions of liberty imposed by his commander,” according to an Army spokesperson.
Brian Walshe on Thursday came face-to-face for the first time with the man who had been having an affair with his wife before her death, as he took the stand to testify in Walshe’s murder trial.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
The US military carried out a strike Thursday on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to a social media post from US Southern Command.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.