ODNI Under Pulte Fires 6 Staff, Sends 45 Back to Home Agencies

Acting DNI Pulte Removes 51 from Agency - Six Fired and 45 "sent back to their home agencies" https://t.co/rjjBcCUszK

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) June 23, 2026

… Bill Pulte is following a very predictable path.

So, who was removed? Well, I’m certainly not the Nostradamus of USIC, but if I were to hazard an educated guess it looks like the National Intelligence Council – Directorate of Analysis, just lost six political staff, and 45 people from the various liaison desks were ‘sent back to their home agencies.’

As we noted last year, Tulsi Gabbard took the National Intelligence Council (NIC) out of the CIA – fired the heads, then putting the assembly back under the control of the ODNI. However, highly political operatives within the former CIA-controlled Directorate of Analysis (the former home of Eric Ciarmella) were still problematic. It looks like Director Pulte just eliminated the remaining DoA rats.

The 45 returned to their ‘home agencies‘ were certainly from the liaison desks inside the DNI.

I’m not sure if that represents 45 from across all the desks, or the complete elimination of some overstaffed liaison desks. That said, given the nature of the leaking was recently to CNN (State Dept leaks to CNN), I am somewhat confident the State Dept liaison office inside the DNI is now empty office space. [Just a hunch 😂]

Scooplet via @cbsnews: Among those pushed out from ODNI was Will Ruger, the deputy director of national intelligence for mission integration, sources told @Olivia_Gazis and me. Ruger was placed on administrative leave. He led the IC’s collaborative efforts and intelligence…

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 24, 2026

… support to policymakers through the President’s Daily Brief and the National Intelligence Council, according to the agency's website.