Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard moved the presidential daily brief staff from the CIA to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Fox News Digital confirmed.
A senior intelligence source told Fox News Digital that the director of National Intelligence “has always controlled” the presidential daily brief (PDB) and that Gabbard “is just moving it physically to ODNI from CIA in a streamlining effort and a continuity of workforce.”
The PDB, according to the intelligence community, is a daily summary of high-level, all-source information and analysis on national security issues produced for the president and key cabinet members and advisers. It is coordinated and delivered by the ODNI with contributions from the CIA as well as other elements from the intelligence community. It has been presented to the president since 1946.
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The move comes after Gabbard, on Tuesday, also moved the National Intelligence Council from the CIA to ODNI. NIC, according to senior intelligence officials, has always been a DNI component.
“It makes sense for them to be physically located at DNI,” a CIA official told Fox News Digital.
Another senior intelligence official pointed to Gabbard’s confirmation hearing, in which she said her “priority was to deliver timely, accurate and actionable intelligence as the President’s principal intelligence advisor.”
“The PDB staff and the NIC are the primary apparatus that feeds her this advisory material, so moving them physically closer gives her the best support,” the official said. “In other words, having them in closer proximity gives her less lag time and faster responsiveness to fill that role as principal intelligence advisor.”
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The official added: “Both moves are about providing the President more timely and actionable intelligence.”
The moves come as Gabbard has taken steps to root out leakers and alleged “deep state holdovers” who officials say are politicizing intelligence analysis and “trying to sabotage President Trump’s agenda.”
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So far, Gabbard has referred three intelligence community professionals to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution over alleged leaks of classified information. Fox News Digital first reported on those criminal referrals in April.
An ODNI official at that time told Fox News Digital that the intelligence community professionals allegedly leaked classified information to the Washington Post and The New York Times.
Fox News Digital, on Tuesday, exclusively reported that Gabbard had fired the top officials leading National Intelligence Council, whom whistleblowers described as “radically opposed to Trump.”
Gabbard fired Mike Collins, who was serving as the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof, Tuesday, senior intelligence officials told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital reached out Langan-Riekhof for comment and did not immediately hear back, and couldn’t immediately find contact information for Collins.
Collins also has whistleblower complaints against him for political bias and “deliberately undermining the incoming Trump administration,” officials said.
They added that Collins was closely associated with Michael Morrell, the former deputy director of the CIA who worked to write a public letter in 2020 claiming that Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” and to get signatures from top ex-intelligence officials.
As for Langan-Reikhof, officials said she has been a “key advocate” for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and is someone who whistleblowers allege is “radically opposed to Trump.”
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