Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is taking steps that appear designed to bolster the role of her office in the presentation of intelligence to the president, according to a government official and two sources with knowledge of the matter.
Gabbard plans to move the office that prepares the president’s daily intelligence briefing from the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, a few miles away in McLean, the official and the sources said. But it’s not clear when the move will take place and how the ODNI will muster the resources and manpower needed to carry it out.
The New York Times first reported the planned move.
As director of national intelligence, Gabbard oversees and approves the president’s daily briefing or PDB. A large staff of analysts and other employees at the CIA compile the classified briefing, creating detailed text, graphics and videos based on the latest intelligence gathered by America’s spy agencies.
The ODNI currently lacks the staff and digital tools needed to put together the brief, former intelligence officers said.
“The DNI has always controlled the PDB. She is just moving it physically to ODNI from CIA in a streamlining effort,” said a government official with knowledge of the matter.
An internal CIA memo on Tuesday informed the workforce about the planned move, saying the agency had identified agency staff to work with their counterparts to facilitate the move but that the exact timeline was still being worked out, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
The Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment.
There has been friction at times over the years between the CIA and ODNI. The director of national intelligence position was created after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the CIA — traditionally the country’s most powerful spy agency — was initially skeptical of a new office overseeing the entire intelligence community.
Apart from the president, the PDB is typically shared with a small number of cabinet members and top aides. What material goes into the daily briefing — and how it’s presented — can decisively shape a president’s decision-making.
By choosing to bring the daily brief operation into her headquarters, Gabbard appears to be looking to have tighter control over what intelligence material reaches the president, especially after an assessment became public that contradicted Trump’s claims about a Venezuelan cartel, former intelligence officers said.
Gabbard also plans to move the National Intelligence Council, which oversees major analyses drawing on contributions from across U.S. spy agencies, to the ODNI. The National Intelligence Council is a part of the ODNI but has been physically located at the CIA.