By Jonathan Landay and Erin Banco
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top Democrat on the U.S. House intelligence committee on Wednesday called on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to produce proof of the alleged political bias that led her to oust the heads of the intelligence community’s highest analytical body.
Gabbard’s removal of the pair came after the National Intelligence Council produced an assessment contradicting the legal argument used by U.S. President Donald Trump to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.
The administration has used a claim that Tren de Aragua is coordinating its U.S. activities with the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro to invoke the 1789 Alien Enemies Act and justify deportations of alleged gang members to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
The ouster of Michael Collins as acting NIC chairman, and his vice chair, Maria Langan-Riekhof, was first reported by Fox News.
Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed on condition of anonymity that Gabbard, an ardent Trump loyalist, had removed them and sent them back to their home intelligence agencies.
One source said that she had yet to make a final decision on firing them entirely or bringing them back to the NIC.
Gabbard’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Representative Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said in a letter to Gabbard that she had failed to inform the congressional intelligence panels of her decision to oust Collins and Langan-Riekhof.
“According to anonymous sources cited in the Fox News story, you terminated these two individuals due to their supposed ‘political bias,’” Himes wrote. “This is an exceptionally serious allegation to make against career intelligence officers – and therefore an allegation that requires supporting evidence.”
He asked Gabbard give the committee that proof by May 21.
The NIC assessment released last week through a Freedom of Information Act request contradicted the administration’s claim about the gang’s connections to Venezuela’s government.
“While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” the assessment concluded.
Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, accused Gabbard in a statement of “purging intelligence officials over a report that the Trump administration finds politically inconvenient. Whatever the administration is trying to protect, it’s not our national security.”
On a related matter, one source said that the CIA was “pushing back hard” against an effort by Gabbard to take over the drafting of the top-secret Presidential Daily Brief, the daily compendium of the most classified U.S. intelligence prepared for the president.
“It’s not a done deal,” the source said.
The CIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Erin Banco; Editing by Don Durfee and Deepa Babington)
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