Counterterrorism nominee Joe Kent under scrutiny as emails show he pushed for edits to intelligence assessment

CBS News

22-05-2025

President Trump's nominee to head the National Counterterrorism Center is under fresh scrutiny as emails show he pressed senior intelligence analysts to amend an assessment of links between the Venezuelan government and the criminal gang, Tren de Aragua, known as TDA, to align the assessment more closely with Trump administration policies and to include references critical of Biden-era immigration programs.
Emails obtained by CBS News show Joe Kent, who currently serves as chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, asked for a "re writing" of a memorandum on the topic authored by the National Intelligence Council, a team of experts within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that produces high-level analytic assessments for use by policymakers.
File: Joe Kent, a former congressional candidate from Washington state, listens to testimony by Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump's nominee to be Director of National Intelligence, during her Senate Select Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing in Dirksen building on Thursday, January 30, 2025.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
After CBS contacted the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for comment, a spokesperson offered to share a selection of Kent's declassified, partially redacted email exchanges if they were published in their entirety. The ODNI file was labeled, "Approved for public release by ODNI on 16 May 2025." It is not clear how exhaustive or reflective of the entirety of deliberations about the assessment the email selection released by ODNI is.
Read the email exchanges released by the ODNI here: ODNI file 1 and ODNI file 2.
On Thursday Kent also personally posted a statement on X defending his actions, writing, "I'm honored to do my part."
The final memorandum, dated April 7, asserts that the Maduro regime in Venezuela "probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States." The assessment was later declassified and publicly released on May 5, following a Freedom of Information Act request by the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
The question of whether Venezuela's government controls TDA has been at the center of judicial disputes surrounding the Trump administration's ability to deport suspected gang members under the seldom used Alien Enemies Act of 1798. President Trump invoked the act in a March proclamation, effectively designating suspected gang members as wartime enemies of the U.S. government.
Soon after the proclamation was signed, the administration used the act to remove 137 Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador.
"I have been meaning to come chat with you about the attached TDA document, before we publish this in the PDB or as a wire product we need to do some re writing a little more analysis so this document is not used against the DNI or POTUS," Kent wrote on April 3, using abbreviations to refer to the director of national intelligence, President's Daily Brief and President Trump. "Wire product" likely refers to a secure communications and information-exchange platform used across the U.S. intelligence community.
In the April 3 email, Kent criticized the draft memorandum from the IC — the intelligence community — for leading with "weak IC speak that basically says we can't prove via smoking gun intel that the Ven gov is directing TDA, making it sound like the Ven gov has nothing to do with TDA," according to its text. He later added, "Another major issue I have with the analysis in this piece is its lack of context about the status of our border and immigration policy over the last 4 years."
"I understand some may view this as political but it is not, it's a simple verifiable reality that we cannot overlook," he wrote.
"Going forward, we need to implement the changes above and incorporate the FBI's assessment of TDA's relationship with the Ven gov upfront, then go into the rest of the document," Kent wrote.
The FBI's view, which appears on page 2 of the final memorandum, notes the bureau's analysts "agree" with the intelligence community's broader assessment that the Maduro government is not directing TDA movement but assess "some Venezuelan government officials facilitate TDA members' migration from Venezuela" with the goal of destabilizing the U.S. and other governments.
The intelligence community assessment notes "most of the IC judges that intelligence indicating that regime leaders are directing or enabling TDA migration to the United States is not credible." Another more heavily redacted section describes intelligence community reporting that suggests a link between TDA and some Venezuelan officials as "limited."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who previously served as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" Sunday he believed the intelligence community was "wrong" in its assessment that the Venezuelan government does not control TDA and that he agreed "100% with the FBI's finding."
While it is not uncommon for analysts' views to be challenged and tested by officials within the chain of command, edits are usually sought to make assessments more reflective of existing data and evidence, and to do so irrespective of government policy, current and former intelligence officials said.
Policymakers are also not bound by what intelligence assessments may find, the officials said, but collection and analysis happen in order to provide officials with an optimal operating picture.
It is not entirely clear from the email exchanges obtained by CBS News and final version of the memorandum how many changes to the text were made at Kent's request.
In a subsequent set of email exchanges on April 4, Kent offered suggestions to replace language in the memorandum about TDA migration trends, arguing that policies under the Biden administration were a key influencing factor.
"Lets go with something like this," Kent wrote, adding as a proposed edit, "The IC also recognizes that between January 2021 and January 2025 the United States immigration policies and border security posture made migration from Venezuela to the United States so easy that the Government of Venezuela did not need to push migrants to the United States, United States immigrations [sic] policy served as its own pulling factor."
Kent later approved another suggested revision that read, "Increased flow of irregular migration from Venezuelan nationals-including some TDA members—could be attributed to a wide perception of lax U.S. immigration policies and a lack of screening at the border between 2021 and 2025."
"This looks great," Kent responded.
The language that appears in the final assessment, however, is different, suggesting there was additional deliberation before it was finalized: "The IC also recognizes the regime appreciates migration as a safety valve, allowing discontented Venezuelans to leave. US border encounters of Venezuelan national [sic] have decreased since January because of migrant perceptions of new US enforcement policies."
The New York Times and Reuters first reported the existence and some of the content of Kent's emails.
Gabbard has since fired the NIC acting chair, Michael Collins, and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekof, both of whom were among email recipients discussing the memorandum.
"These Biden holdovers were dismissed because they politicized intelligence," Kent's deputy, Alexa Henning, later said on X.
A former Green Beret, CIA officer, and Republican congressional hopeful, Kent has been a close ally of Gabbard, who personally endorsed his previous political runs. President Trump nominated Kent to head the National Counterterrorism Center, a prominent office within ODNI and a role that requires Senate confirmation, in February.
On Wednesday, the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees raised alarm about Kent's apparent attempt to align an intelligence assessment with existing government policy and said consideration of his nomination for NCTC director should pause.
"This was a blatant attempt to politicize national security to appease a president who has repeatedly shown contempt for facts and for the intelligence professionals sworn to defend this country," committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner of Virginia said in a statement on Wednesday, adding the Senate should "immediately halt consideration" of Mr. Kent's nomination to lead NCTC.
House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes of Connecticut said, "Seeking to strongarm analysts to suit the agenda of the President, and punishing them when they refuse to bend, is a road to national security disaster—and yet that is precisely the road that this Administration has chosen."
"The Senate must not confirm Mr. Kent as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center without a full understanding of his actions," Himes said.