Gabbard revokes security clearances of 37 current, former US intelligence professionals
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Tuesday that she had revoked security clearances of 37 current and former intelligence professionals whom she accused of "politicizing and manipulating intelligence."
Gabbard said in a social media statement that the action was taken at President Donald Trump's direction.
Gabbard has repeatedly alleged weaponization of the U.S. intelligence community, and last month the U.S. Department of Justice said it was forming a strike force to assess her claims.
Trump has leaped on recent comments from Gabbard in which she threatened to refer officials from the administration of Democratic former President Barack Obama to the Justice Department for prosecution over an intelligence assessment of Russian interference in U.S. elections.
Republican Trump has accused Obama, without providing evidence, of leading an effort to falsely tie him to Russia and undermine his 2016 presidential campaign. A spokesperson for Obama had denounced Trump's claims, saying, "These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction."
It was not clear if all of those on the list released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence - including a former spokesperson for Obama's National Security Council and Biden's coordinator for global COVID response - had indeed served as intelligence professionals.
An ODNI spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about the backgrounds of those whose security clearances had been revoked.
Gabbard says there was a "treasonous conspiracy" in 2016 by top Obama officials to undermine Trump, claims that Democrats called false and politically motivated. Trump won the 2016 election.
An assessment by the U.S. intelligence community published in January 2017 concluded that Russia, using social media disinformation, hacking, and Russian bot farms, sought to damage Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and bolster Trump.
The assessment determined the actual impact was likely limited and showed no evidence that Moscow's efforts changed voting outcomes. Russia has denied it attempted to interfere in U.S. elections.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Vance says it's up to Europe to provide ‘lion's share' of Ukraine security guarantees
U.S. Vice President JD Vance has said that Europe should 'carry the burden' and take the 'lion's share' of the responsibility for safeguarding Ukraine should a peace deal with Russia be secured. Defense Undersecretary for Policy Elbridge Colby has meanwhile said that American involvement in any future peacekeeping mission in the region would be 'minimal,' according to Politico. The comments come as President Donald Trump continues in his attempt to play mediator in separate talks between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, meeting with the Russian president in Alaska last week and Zelensky in D.C. on Monday in the company of Europe's leading heads of state in pursuit of a breakthrough. Trump has ruled out sending any American ground troops into Eastern Europe but said it could support the peacekeeping effort by air, stating that Europe's powers would be the 'first line of defence' but receive 'a lot of help' from the U.S. Speaking to Laura Ingraham on Fox News on Wednesday, Vance said, 'I think that we should be helpful if it's necessary to stop the war and to stop the killing. But I think that we should expect, and the president certainly expects, Europe to play the leading role here. 'What he said very clearly is: Look, the United States is open to having the conversation, but we're not going to make commitments until we figure out what is going to be necessary to stop the war in the first place.' Despite the lack of major announcements so far, the VP insisted that 'great progress' is being made. 'You can never say with certainty what the outcome in this situation is going to be,' he told Ingraham. 'But we now have the Russians talking to the Ukrainians; they're talking details about what would be necessary on each side to stop the fighting, to stop the killing.' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov struck a much more cautious note on Wednesday, warning that negotiations on security guarantees for Ukraine without Moscow's involvement would amount to a 'road to nowhere.' 'We cannot agree with the fact that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation,' he said. 'This will not work.' Although Trump has dismissed the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, a red line for Putin, his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the military alliance's Secretary General Mark Rutte have proposed offering Kyiv a collective defense agreement of its own similar to that underwriting the 32-member bloc, which Lavrov may have been obliquely warning against. Colby's comment came as European military leaders met with Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at which defense officials from the U.K., France, Germany, and Finland reportedly pushed the U.S. delegation for more details on what military resources it was prepared to provide. 'There's the dawning reality that this will be Europe making this happen on the ground,' a dismayed Nato diplomat, who was briefed on the talks, said afterwards. 'The U.S. is not fully committed to anything.' 'I don't know where that leaves us,' one of the European officials said. 'Pretty much back to where we were in the spring with the coalition of the willing.'
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Fact Check: US Senate Democrats introduced resolution to eliminate Electoral College and 'restore democracy.' Here's what we know
Claim: In August 2025, U.S. Senate Democrats introduced a bill to abolish the Electoral College and "restore democracy." Rating: What's True: It is true that in December 2024, three Democratic senators introduced a constitutional amendment to remove the Electoral College in favor of direct national elections. They argued that the current system, in place since the nation's founding, was "outdated and undemocratic." However … What's False: … the resolution had not moved out of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate as of August 2025. Further, a U.S. constitutional amendment requires two-thirds votes in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as ratification from three-fourths of the states. In August 2025, a rumor began to circulate that Democrats in the U.S. Senate had introduced a bill to abolish the Electoral College in presidential elections, a system in place since the nation's founding enshrined in Article 2, Section 1, Clause 3 (archived) of the U.S. Constitution. According to the rumor, the senators said removing it would "restore democracy." For example, an Aug. 18, 2025, post on X shared the claim, saying the news was "breaking" (archived): As of this writing, the post had received nearly 1 million views and 2,700 likes. However, this claim had circulated for months. Snopes found similar posts from December 2024 and January and February 2025, all claiming the news was "breaking." There were true and false elements in this claim. While it is true that three Senate Democrats introduced such a piece of legislation, they did so in December 2024. In other words, no new text had been introduced between December 2024 and August 2025. Further, it was a joint resolution for a constitutional amendment, as opposed to a bill (the legislative processes for each differ). Lastly, the legislative proposal had not progressed out of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where it was introduced. On Dec. 16, 2024, Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, D*ck Durbin of Illinois and Peter Welch of Vermont presented Joint Resolution 121, "A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to abolish the Electoral College and to provide for the direct election of the President and Vice President of the United States." The text of the joint resolution had been sent to the Judiciary Committee four days prior to the announcement. The three senators "introduced a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College system and restore democracy by allowing the direct election of presidents through popular vote alone," according to a statement posted on Schatz's website. The Electoral College, instituted at the foundation of the U.S., is a system in which voters do not directly elect a president. Instead, they vote for "electors" in each state, the number of whom is determined by the size of the population in their respective states. The electors meet to cast their votes a few weeks after the general election has taken place. The candidate who wins the majority of electoral votes wins the election. This system has created odd situations, for example in 2000 and in 2020, when the presidential candidates who won the popular vote actually lost the election. The system has been criticized for effectively creating a minority rule that runs against democratic ideals. "In an election, the person who gets the most votes should win. It's that simple," the same statement quoted Schatz as saying. "No one's vote should count for more based on where they live. The Electoral College is outdated and it's undemocratic. It's time to end it." This was not the first effort of this nature. The statement also quoted Durbin as saying he had attempted to remove the Electoral College once before: In 2000, before the general election, I introduced a bipartisan resolution to amend the Constitution and abolish the Electoral College. I still believe today that it is time to retire this 18th century invention that disenfranchises millions of Americans. The American people deserve to choose all their leaders, and I am proud to support this effort with Senators Schatz and Welch to empower voters. However, as of this writing Joint Resolution 121 had not progressed out of the Judiciary Committee. Further, the bar to pass a constitutional amendment is high, as outlined by Article V of the Constitution (archived). The Democratic senators' legislative text would have to be approved by two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, before being approved either by having three-fourths of state legislatures ratify the amendment or obtaining assent from ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states. In other words, the likelihood of such an amendment passing was slim as of this writing. "Bills & Resolutions | Accessed 20 Aug. 2025. Bolton, Alexander. "Senate Democrats Push Plan to Abolish Electoral College." The Hill, 16 Dec. 2024, Accessed 20 Aug. 2025. Lucas, Mike. "Why Do We Have an Electoral College?" 8 Oct. 2024, Accessed 20 Aug. 2025. "Overview of Article v, Amending the Constitution | Constitution Annotated | | Library of Congress." Accessed 20 Aug. 2025. "Schatz, Durbin, Welch Introduce Constitutional Amendment to End Undemocratic Electoral College | U.S. Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii." Brian Schatz, 16 Dec. 2024, Accessed 20 Aug. 2025. Schatz, Brian. A Joint Resolution Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to Abolish the Electoral College and to Provide for the Direct Election of the President and Vice President of the United States. 12 Dec. 2024, Accessed 20 Aug. 2025. Schultz, David. "Minority Rights and the Electoral College: What Minority, Whose Rights?" Georgia Law Review, vol. 55, no. 4, Jan. 2021, Accessed 20 Aug. 2025.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Federal data website outage raises concerns among advocates
A federal website that informs the public about what information agencies are collecting and allows for public comment went down last weekend, and it has only been partially restored. The outage has raised concerns among advocates who already were troubled by the disappearance of data sets from government websites after President Donald Trump began his second term. The website went offline at the end of last week and was partially restored this week. Data was missing after Aug. 1, according to dataindex,us, a collective of data scientists and advocates who monitor changes in federal data sets. As of Thursday, the website's landing page said, it was 'currently undergoing revisions.' Emailed inquiries to the Office of Management and Budget and General Services Administration weren't returned on Thursday. In February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's official public portal for health data, was taken down entirely but subsequently went back up. Around the same time, when a query was made to access certain public data from the U.S. Census Bureau's most comprehensive survey of American life, users for several days got a response that said the area was 'unavailable due to maintenance' before access was restored. Researchers Janet Freilich and Aaron Kesselheim examined 232 federal public health data sets that had been modified in the first quarter of this year and found that almost half had been 'substantially altered,' with the majority having the word 'gender' switched to 'sex,' they wrote last month in The Lancet medical journal. Former Census Bureau official Chris Dick, who is part of the team, said Thursday that no one is quite sure what is going on with the regulatory affairs website, whether there was an update with technical difficulties because of staffing shortages from job cuts or something more nefarious. 'This is key infrastructure that needs to come back,' Dick said. 'Usually, you can fix this quickly. It's not super normal for this to go on for days.' ___ Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @ Play Farm Merge Valley
