High-ranking U.S. intelligence officials directed agencies to gather information on Greenland last week as part of President Trump&#8217;s determined effort to acquire the mineral-rich Arctic island.
Several high-ranking officials under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued a classified &#8220;collection emphasis message&#8221; to intelligence agency heads last week, instructing them to acquire intel regarding Greenland&#8217;s independence movement and identify people supportive of U.S. objectives, top officials <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/greenland-spying-us-intelligence-809c4ef2?mod=hp_lead_pos1">told</a> The Wall Street Journal.
A &#8220;collection emphasis message&#8221; indicates a high priority objective for intelligence agencies, whose collection resources include surveillance satellites, intercepting electronic communications, and even agents on the ground.
Gabbard gave tacit confirmation of the directive’s existence in a statement admonishing the WSJ, writing: “The Wall Street Journal should be ashamed of aiding deep state actors who seek to undermine the President by politicizing and leaking classified information. They are breaking the law and undermining our nation’s security and democracy.&#8221;
The classified directive, sent to the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, and National Security Agency, marks one of the first tangible moves toward carrying out President Trump&#8217;s desire to acquire the mineral-rich, geopolitically significant territory.
National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt declined to comment on the leaked intelligence, but did state, “The president has been very clear that the U.S. is concerned about the security of Greenland and the Arctic.”
&#8220;We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we&#8217;re working with everybody involved to try and get it,&#8221; President Trump stated during a March joint address to Congress. &#8220;One way or the other, we&#8217;re going to get it.&#8221;
Vice President JD Vance, then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright traveled to Greenland in March, prompting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/greenlanders-are-angry-and-confused-over-unwanted-u-s-visit-87e701c2">complain</a> of &#8220;completely unacceptable pressure on Greenland.&#8221;
The approximately 836,000 square mile territory is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/11/24/781598549/greenland-is-not-for-sale-but-it-has-the-rare-earth-minerals-america-wants">estimated</a> to hold roughly a quarter of the world’s rare-earth minerals necessary for various technologies, along <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/greenland-suspends-oil-exploration-because-of-climate-change">with</a> an estimated 17.5 billion undiscovered barrels of oil and 148 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that could strengthen American energy independence.
The intelligence directive comes as the Arctic has become an increasingly <a href="https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/new-cold-war-china-declares-near-arctic-state/">contested</a> geopolitical arena, with China declaring itself a &#8220;near-Arctic state&#8221; and Russia expanding its military presence in the region.
Moscow has reopened Soviet-era Arctic bases and deployed nuclear-capable missiles to its northern territories, while Beijing has invested billions in Arctic infrastructure projects, including <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-pentagon-countered-chinas-designs-on-greenland-11549812296">attempts</a> to finance airports in Greenland that were ultimately blocked by Denmark with U.S. support.
Danish officials have repeatedly rebuffed Trump&#8217;s interest in acquiring the island, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/denmark-pm-repeats-that-greenland-is-not-sale-2025-02-03/">saying</a> in February: &#8220;Greenland is today a part of the kingdom of Denmark. It is part of our territory, and it&#8217;s not for sale.&#8221;
However, some Greenlandic independence advocates have expressed increasing openness to stronger ties with the United States in recent months.
One resident told the New York Post in March, “I think we need change here in Greenland. We are tired of the Danish colonialism,” <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/27/us-news/trumps-greenlandic-supporters-lean-away-from-denmark-aim-to-build-us-ties-make-greenland-great-again/">said</a> Lars Kleist, a Greenlandic Inuit who said he lost his job in 2020 because of his pro-independence views. “When you enter the town, everything is ruled by the Danish,” who are only 10% of the population.
As such, the intelligence directive specifically instructed agencies to assess Greenland&#8217;s political landscape and identify local leaders who might be receptive to American overtures, according to sources familiar with the order.

Senate Intelligence Cmte Holds Confirmation Hearing For DNI Nominee Tulsi Gabbard

U.S. Intelligence Agencies Directed To Spy On Greenland As Trump Mulls Takeover

Greenland

National Security

National Security Agency (NSA)

Trump Administration

Tulsi Gabbard

Filmmaker Oliver Stone Testifies In House Oversight Hearing On JFK Assassination Files

Facts Over Fiction: A Guide To Debunking Conspiracy Theories

Ben Shapiro

Congress

Conspiracy Theory

Federal Government

House Oversight Committee

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

Oliver Stone

Opinion

CIA Director John Ratcliffe accused the journalist from The Atlantic who wrote a piece about top Trump officials communicating over a Signal chat group that inadvertently included him of lying in his report.
Ratcliffe made the remarks during testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, National Security Agency Director Gen. Timothy Haugh, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse.
&#8220;My responsibility as CIA Director, one of its responsibilities is to kill terrorists, and that&#8217;s exactly what I did along with President Trump&#8217;s excellent national security team,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s what we should be focused on.&#8221;
Ratcliffe said that one of the major issues with the article was how it falsely suggested things that never happened.
&#8220;I spent four hours answering questions from Senators as a result of that article that were intimating that I transmitted classified information because they were hidden messages,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;Those messages were revealed today and revealed that I did not transmit classified information and that the reporter, who I don&#8217;t know, I think intentionally intended it to indicate that.&#8221;
&#8220;That reporter also indicated that I had released the name of an undercover CIA operative in that Signal chat,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;In fact, I had released the name of my chief of staff, who is not operating undercover. That was deliberately false and misleading.&#8221;
Ratcliffe noted that his answers have not changed about what happened, he used an appropriate channel to communicate, and he did not transfer any classified information.
&#8220;At the end of the day, what is most important is that the mission was a remarkable success is what everyone should be focused on here because that&#8217;s what did happen, not what possibly could have happened,&#8221; he said.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/CIADirector?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CIADirector</a>: &quot;My answers haven&#39;t changed. I used an appropriate channel to communicate sensitive information. It was permissible to do so &#8230; and at the end of the day, what is most important is that the mission was a remarkable success.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/Mas5YKrz5a">pic.twitter.com/Mas5YKrz5a</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1904908706426351757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

US-POLITICS-INTELLIGENCE-CONGRESS

CIA Director John Ratcliffe Shreds Atlantic Editor Behind Signal Story: ‘Deliberately False’

John Ratcliffe

The Atlantic

President Kennedy Delivering Speech

What We Learned From The JFK Files

assasination

Cuba

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Matt Walsh

President Trump

SWAT teams were on the scene near the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Wednesday, according to local law enforcement.
The Fairfax County Police Department said that &#8220;Dolley Madison Blvd is shut down in both directions between Georgetown Pk and Savile Ln in McLean for a barricade incident at @CIA HQ.&#8221;
&#8220;Our Special Operations Division is on scene assisting. Please follow police direction,&#8221; the department added.
Around 3:30 EST, police said that the suspect had been taken into custody.
&#8220;The barricade incident has been resolved,&#8221; police said. &#8220;The suspect surrendered to FCPD negotiators and is in custody.&#8221;
Local media <a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/cia-headquarters-threats-police-presence-bomb-squad-team-fairfax-county-police-mclean-safety-public-government-trump-administration">reported</a> that it appeared as though a bomb squad was also present, but it was unclear if that was precautionary or if law enforcement had reason to believe that there was some kind of an explosive threat.
The incident comes after the Trump administration released files on the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday evening, although it was unclear whether the incident was connected to the situation at the CIA headquarters.
This is a breaking news story; refresh the page for updates.

Law Enforcement Responds To Armed Individual At CIA Headquarters

SWAT Team On Scene At CIA Headquarters Over ‘Barricade’ Situation

General

U.S.

Washington D.C.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is flying MQ-9 Reaper drones over Mexico as part of President Donald Trump&#8217;s efforts to revamp the war against transnational drug cartels.
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/cia-drone-missions-mexico-drug-cartels/index.html">reported</a> that the move comes as the administration has deployed significant resources to the southern border to stop illegal aliens and drugs from pouring into the United States at the unprecedented rate experienced during the Biden administration.
The unarmed drones are currently only conducting spy missions against the cartels. The CIA can arm the drones and use them against foreign enemies, which it has often done when fighting Islamic terrorists in the Middle East and Africa.
The administration is treating the cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), a designation that it has not yet formally made but likely will in the coming weeks, which could lay the groundwork for using the drones to kill top cartel leaders and destroy manufacturing sites.
The CIA said in a statement that “countering drug cartels in Mexico and regionally is a priority for CIA as a part of the Trump Administration’s broader efforts to end the grave threat from narco-trafficking. Director [John] Ratcliffe is determined to put CIA’s unique expertise to work against this multifaceted challenge.”
Mexican officials, powerless to counter the vastly larger and more powerful U.S. government, have downplayed the CIA drones flying over Mexico, claiming that they do &#8220;not violate national airspace,&#8221; according to Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum did not resist the notion of drones flying over Mexican airspace to fight the cartels.
&#8220;The important thing here, I think, in the declaration, which is what we have always proposed, is that they share information with the Government of Mexico,&#8221; she said.
Trump’s top goals for the agency revolve around trade wars, undermining communist China, and destroying the drug cartels.
The president was asked the day after he was sworn into office if he would consider &#8220;sending U.S. special forces into Mexico&#8221; to take out the cartels.
“Could happen,” Trump said with a large grin on his face. “Stranger things have happened.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="‘Stranger Things Have Happened’: Trump Flashes A Giant Grin When Asked About Cartels" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t_XT3hPxbT0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-confirms-john-ratcliffe-as-trumps-cia-director">Senate Confirms John Ratcliffe As Trump’s CIA Director</a>

Reaper Aircraft Flies Without Pilot From Creech AFB

CIA Operating Reaper Drones Over Mexico In War Against Drug Cartels

Cartels

Crime

Drones

Drug Cartels

Mexico

Politics

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedly offered buyouts to its entire workforce on Tuesday in an effort to restructure the agency and confront the top threats facing the U.S.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/the-cia-is-about-to-get-a-trump-makeover-16fc0cbf">reported</a> that employees were offered eight months of pay and benefits if they quit their jobs, but overall interest among those who work at the CIA appeared to be low.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe&#8217;s officer said that the agency was also temporarily freezing the hiring of applicants who had been given conditional offers.
The report added that President Donald Trump&#8217;s top goals for the agency revolved around trade wars, undermining communist China, and destroying the Mexican drug cartels.
The offers were essentially a signal to those working in the U.S. government that if they oppose Trump, they should leave the agency and work elsewhere.
Ratcliffe reportedly urged the White House to make the offers to the CIA because he believes it is a necessary first step for creating &#8220;a more aggressive spy agency.&#8221;
In his confirmation hearing last month before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ratcliffe said that the U.S.&#8217;s current threat environment was &#8220;the most challenging&#8221; in history.
&#8220;The Chinese Communist Party remains committed to dominating the world economically, technologically, and militarily,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;Transnational criminal organizations are flooding American communities with violence and deadly narcotics.&#8221;
&#8220;The Russia-Ukraine War wages on, spreading devastation and increasing the risk of the United States being pulled into conflict with a nuclear power,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies continue to export mayhem across the Middle East, and Iran is closer to nuclear breakout than ever before.&#8221;
&#8220;North Korea remains a destabilizing force,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Increasing coordination among America’s rivals and adversaries threatens to compound the threats they each pose individually. And numerous terrorist groups and other non-state actors – some of which have even crossed our southern border – still pose a persistent threat to our people and our homeland.&#8221;
<iframe loading="lazy" title="John Ratcliffe Tells CIA Officers To ‘Buckle Up’ Or Get Out: ‘We Must Be The Ultimate Meritocracy’" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SO8u-0fTRp0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

John Ratcliffe faces Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing

CIA Offers Buyouts In Effort To Reshape Agency To Confront Top Threats

Deep State

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said during an interview over the weekend that the world&#8217;s leading intelligence agency was now investigating whether the COVID-19 pandemic was an accident or if it was intentional.
Ratcliffe made the remarks during a Sunday interview on &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221; while discussing his decision to release the findings from a new assessment that was conducted the Biden administration that concluded that the pandemic originated from a lab in Wuhan.
Ratcliffe said that the reason that he released the intelligence was because it was important for Americans to regain trust in government institutions.
&#8220;I had the opportunity on my first day to make public an assessment that actually took place in the Biden administration,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;So it can&#8217;t be accused of being political, and it does assess, the CIA has assessed that the most likely cause of this pandemic that has wrought so much devastation around the world was because of a lab related incident in Wuhan, and so we&#8217;ll continue to investigate that moving forward.&#8221;
When asked by host Maria Bartiromo if the CIA has concluded whether or not the lab leak was &#8220;intentional or accidental,&#8221; Ratcliffe responded: &#8220;I&#8217;m going to look closely at the intelligence that we&#8217;ve gathered.&#8221;
&#8220;I think we&#8217;ll get to the point where every intelligence agency in the United States will agree with the CIA&#8217;s assessment that the most likely outcome was from from a lab in Wuhan,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And we&#8217;ll get more intelligence as time goes by, and we&#8217;ll be transparent with the American people about what that intelligence says.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Trump&#8217;s CIA Director John Ratcliffe says that the agency is evaluating intel it has on COVID origins to determine whether China intentionally started it or if it was an accident. <a href="https://t.co/oQTSykPJI4">pic.twitter.com/oQTSykPJI4</a>
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1883565203633352962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2025</a></blockquote>

CIA Director Ratcliffe: Agency Now Evaluating If China Intentionally Started Pandemic

Communist China

COVID-19

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CIA</a> said on Saturday that it now assesses that a lab leak from communist China was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic that upended the world several years ago.
The announcement came after CIA Director John Ratcliffe was overwhelmingly confirmed by the U.S. Senate this week.
&#8220;CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a neutral origin based on the available body of reporting,&#8221; the agency said in a statement. &#8220;CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.&#8221;
&#8220;We have low confidence in this judgement and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA&#8217;s assessment,&#8221; the statement added.
The New York Times reported that the decision to reassess the origins of the pandemic came after the Biden administration &#8220;ordered a new classified review of the pandemic’s origin&#8221; during the administration&#8217;s final weeks in office.
Ratcliffe simply declassified and released the results of the assessment, thus dispelling insinuations that he politicized intelligence.
The report said that the new analysis comes after the agency took a closer look at the conditions inside high security labs in Wuhan before the outbreak.
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The Wall Street Journal reported late last year that the Biden administration suppressed information from U.S. intelligence agencies that indicated a lab leak in communist China was the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FBI was the only government agency that assessed that a lab leak was the likely source of the pandemic, and had “moderate confidence” in their evaluation. Four other government departments said they believed the pandemic had a zoonotic origin — meaning that it came from animals — but they said they had “low confidence” in their assessment, according to The Wall Street Journal.
When National Intelligence Director Avril Haines briefed Biden in August 2021, three months after Biden ordered a 90-day review to determine where the pandemic came from, the FBI was not asked to attend the meeting.
Jason Bannan, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology, joined the FBI after the 9/11 attacks to bolster its expertise in matters related to biological weapons, chemical weapons, and more.
“Being the only agency that assessed that a laboratory origin was more likely, and the agency that expressed the highest level of confidence in its analysis of the source of the pandemic, we anticipated the FBI would be asked to attend the briefing,” Bannan told The Wall Street Journal. “I find it surprising that the White House didn’t ask.”
The Wall Street Journal investigation found that officials in the Biden administration sought to keep certain information from becoming public about the lab leak theory, and that the FBI was not the only agency that thought the pandemic originated in a Chinese lab.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-suppressed-info-from-intel-agencies-that-blamed-lab-leak-for-covid-19-pandemic?fbclid=IwY2xjawICJ79leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfYqpb8faFYISrCbu8EPdkibKpSIvH9IJKNtMSzQ7kh1Z9dtv9ZIErsn7w_aem_wqZibq2ln1O3VS02dDEVqA">Biden Admin Suppressed Info From Intel Agencies That Blamed ‘Lab Leak’ For COVID-19 Pandemic</a>

CIA Assesses Chinese Lab Leak Responsible For Coronavirus Pandemic

COVID

World

On Thursday, the GOP-led <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-senate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate</a> confirmed the nomination of <a href="https://x.com/CraigCaplan/status/1881476717325558114" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Ratcliffe</a> to become <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CIA</a> director in President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>&#8216;s second term.
The final tally was <a href="https://x.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1882509868520927345" target="_blank" rel="noopener">74-25</a>, with many Democrats joining with Republicans in voting for Ratcliffe, who is the second Trump Cabinet nominee to be confirmed after Secretary of State Marco Rubio was approved unanimously earlier this week. A simple majority was needed for confirmation.
Ratcliffe is a former House Republican from Texas who served as director of national intelligence at the end of the first Trump administration.
During his confirmation hearing last week, Ratcliffe testified that he demonstrated his &#8220;record in terms of speaking truth to power and defending the intelligence community and its good work&#8221; when he stood firm against efforts to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story.
&#8220;In 2020, when a chairman of an intelligence committee misrepresented that a laptop owned by then-candidate [Joe] Biden&#8217;s son was somehow a Russian intelligence operation and 51 former intelligence officials used the imprimatur of IC authority to go along with that, I stood in the breach. I stood alone and told the American people the truth about that,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
CIA Director Nominee <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnRatcliffe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JohnRatcliffe</a>: &#8220;In 2020, when a chairman of an intelligence committee misrepresented that a laptop owned by then candidate Biden&#8217;s son was somehow a Russian intelligence operation&#8230; I stood in the breach. I stood alone and told the American people the truth… <a href="https://t.co/5d75IK13BG">pic.twitter.com/5d75IK13BG</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1879559506243285015?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Senate Intelligence Committee advanced Ratcliffe&#8217;s nomination by a 14-3 vote with bipartisan support. However, earlier this week, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-republicans-erupt-over-dem-stalling-of-trump-nominees" target="_blank" rel="noopener">objected</a> to a so-called <a href="https://x.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1881841277626671515" target="_blank" rel="noopener">time agreement</a> that would have allowed a final confirmation vote to have taken place on Tuesday.
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Murphy <a href="https://www.c-span.org/event/us-senate/us-senate/430291" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he wanted a &#8220;full&#8221; debate that lasted a couple of more days while insisting that some members had &#8220;serious concerns&#8221; that the CIA pick would not be able to &#8220;distance himself from the political interests of President Trump.&#8221; Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) rejected Murphy&#8217;s claim about Democrats needing more time and surmised that &#8220;what this is really about is trying to drag out all of these nominations to play procedural games, as we&#8217;re about to, with Pete Hegseth&#8217;s nomination to try to deny President Trump his Cabinet in a prompt and timely fashion.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
My message to obstructionist Democrats:
Don’t make plans this weekend. We’re going to get President Trump’s nominees confirmed the easy collegial way, or apparently the hard way. <a href="https://t.co/DJrA09bTqk">pic.twitter.com/DJrA09bTqk</a>
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1881851088980279482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
The Senate could hold a confirmation vote on Hegseth, who is the nominee to become defense secretary, as early as Friday after GOP leadership took procedural steps to set it up in the face of Democrat resistance to speed up consideration of Trump&#8217;s Cabinet picks. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who is Trump&#8217;s nominee to become Secretary of Homeland Security, may be next with a <a href="https://x.com/DISivak/status/1882201777631805941" target="_blank" rel="noopener">final vote</a> over the weekend.
&nbsp;
Senate Majority Leader <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-thune" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Thune</a> (R-SD) <a href="https://x.com/LeaderJohnThune/status/1881880780319944809" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> Democrats against slowing down efforts to confirm Trump&#8217;s nominees, saying on X: &#8220;As I’ve repeatedly said, Senate Republicans are ready to work as long as needed to confirm President Trump’s nominees. Nights. Weekends. Recesses.&#8221;
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Senate Confirms John Ratcliffe As Trump’s CIA Director

Cabinet

Donald Trump

Presidential nomination

U.S. Senate

Leading <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-senate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate</a> Republicans have been delivering fiery rebukes as their Democrat colleagues slowed down the process of confirming President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>&#8216;s Cabinet nominees for his nascent second term in the White House.
After Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) objected to a so-called <a href="https://x.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1881841277626671515" target="_blank" rel="noopener">time agreement</a> that would have allowed a final vote on <a href="https://x.com/CraigCaplan/status/1881476717325558114" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Ratcliffe</a>&#8216;s nomination to become CIA director on Tuesday, Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) voiced his dismay in <a href="https://www.c-span.org/event/us-senate/us-senate/430291" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarks</a> on the Senate floor while stressing that the upper chamber would press ahead with Trump&#8217;s picks.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve now wasted a whole day where we could have been acting on that nomination,&#8221; Thune said, adding that the question before the Senate was &#8220;do we want a vote on these folks on Tuesday or vote on them on Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Because that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re going to do. This can be easy or this can be hard.&#8221;
Thune highlighted that Ratcliffe, a former House Republican from Texas who served as director of national intelligence at the end of Trump&#8217;s first term, sailed through the Senate Intelligence Committee by a 14-3 vote with bipartisan support.
&#8220;This is about America&#8217;s national security interests. And we&#8217;re stalling,&#8221; Thune continued. &#8220;So that&#8217;s not going to happen. We&#8217;re going to file cloture on them. You can force us to stay here, staying around here. And we can vote on these things Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But we&#8217;re going to vote on them.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
As I’ve repeatedly said, Senate Republicans are ready to work as long as needed to confirm President Trump’s nominees. Nights. Weekends. Recesses. <a href="https://t.co/yLl2hIo0pc">pic.twitter.com/yLl2hIo0pc</a>
&mdash; Leader John Thune (@LeaderJohnThune) <a href="https://twitter.com/LeaderJohnThune/status/1881880780319944809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Thune also took procedural steps that will pave the way to final confirmation votes in the coming days for Ratcliffe&#8217;s nomination, as well as South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem&#8217;s nomination to become Homeland Security secretary and Pete Hegseth&#8217;s nomination to become Defense secretary — both of whom have advanced out of committee, too.
With a post to X featuring a video of his remarks, Thune suggested there could even be recess appointments. Trump has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-how-recess-appointments-work-and-how-they-could-help-trump-fill-his-cabinet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">advocated</a> for installing his own nominees in such a manner, during a recess, if the Senate fails to confirm them in a &#8220;timely manner.&#8221;
In rejecting the Senate Republicans&#8217; bid to proceed more swiftly with a confirmation vote on Ratcliffe&#8217;s nomination, Murphy <a href="https://www.c-span.org/event/us-senate/us-senate/430291" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he wanted a &#8220;full&#8221; debate that lasted a couple more days while insisting that some members had &#8220;serious concerns&#8221; that the CIA pick would not be able to &#8220;distance himself from the political interests of President Trump.&#8221;
But Senate Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) wasn&#8217;t buying it. He rejected Murphy&#8217;s claim about Democrats needing more time to discuss Ratcliffe&#8217;s nomination and surmised that &#8220;what this is really about is trying to drag out all of these nominations to play procedural games, as we&#8217;re about to, with Pete Hegseth&#8217;s nomination to try to deny President Trump his Cabinet in a prompt and timely fashion.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
My message to obstructionist Democrats:
Don’t make plans this weekend. We’re going to get President Trump’s nominees confirmed the easy collegial way, or apparently the hard way. <a href="https://t.co/DJrA09bTqk">pic.twitter.com/DJrA09bTqk</a>
&mdash; Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1881851088980279482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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So far, the GOP-led Senate has approved just one of Trump&#8217;s Cabinet nominees: now-former senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, who on Tuesday was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/marco-rubio-sworn-in-says-war-in-ukraine-must-end" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sworn in</a> to office as U.S. Secretary of State after being confirmed by a unanimous vote on Monday.
While some delays may be <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/confirmation-delays-stack-up-trump-nominees-paperwork-lags-federal-offices" target="_blank" rel="noopener">due to paperwork</a>, the Senate Judiciary Committee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-democrats-put-arbitrary-hold-on-pam-bondi-nomination" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that Democrats pushed back a meeting to vote on advancing the nomination of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pam-bondi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pam Bondi</a> to become U.S. attorney general by a week with a hold allowed under the rules.

John Thune

Senate Republicans Erupt Over Dem ‘Stalling’ Of Trump Nominees

Chris Murphy

Kristi Noem

Pam Bondi

Pete Hegseth

Senate Democrats

Tom Cotton

A former <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CIA</a> analyst pled guilty in federal court this week to stealing and leaking secret Israeli retaliation plans in October against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, had been employed by the agency since 2016 and had a Top-Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI).
The U.S. Department of Justice <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-cia-analyst-pleads-guilty-transmitting-top-secret-national-defense-information" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that on October 17, 2024, Rahman &#8220;accessed and printed two Top Secret documents containing National Defense Information&#8221; related to Israel&#8217;s planned retaliatory strikes against Iran after Iran had fired hundreds of ballistic missiles into Israel just a couple of weeks prior.
The following day the classified documents began to appear on social media platforms and were widely reported on.
The DOJ continued:
<blockquote>After Oct. 17, 2024, Rahman deleted and edited journal entries and written work product on his personal electronic devices to conceal his personal opinions on U.S. policy and drafted entries to construct a false narrative regarding his activity. Rahman also destroyed multiple electronic devices, including a personal mobile device and an internet router he used to transmit classified information and photographs of classified documents, and discarded the destroyed devices in public trash receptacles in an effort to thwart potential investigations into him and his unlawful conduct.
Beginning in the spring of 2024 and continuing through November 2024, Rahman repeatedly accessed and printed classified National Defense Information, including documents classified up to the Top Secret level, to take them to his residence. There, Rahman reproduced the documents and, while doing so, altered them in an effort to conceal their source and his activity. Rahman then communicated Top Secret information that he learned in the course of his employment to multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive it.</blockquote>
He was indicted by a federal grand jury on November 7th and was arrested the following week as he arrived at work.
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He pled guilty to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense, and remains in federal custody. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison on each count.
“Mr. Rahman betrayed the trust of the American people by unlawfully sharing classified national defense information he swore an oath to protect,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that the Justice Department will spare no effort to swiftly find and aggressively prosecute those who harm the United States by illegally disclosing our national security secrets.”

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