US intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard leaving post after rocky tenure

Tulsi Gabbard will leave her role as US director of national intelligence on 30 June after a period in which she was largely sidelined. She sent a letter to the US president stating she would resign and acknowledging that significant progress had been made while important work remained. The White House forced her resignation, according to a reported source. The president said she had done an incredible job and named Aaron Lukas, principal deputy director of national intelligence, as acting director. Her marginalization followed disagreements over Iran policy and later efforts to align with the president’s agenda by calling for prosecution of Barack Obama and other officials over alleged treasonous conspiracy related to Russia and the 2016 election.

"In a letter to the US president, she said she would resign and leave her post on 30 June. While we have made significant progress I recognize there is still important work to be done, she wrote. The White House forced Gabbard to resign, the Reuters news agency reported, citing a source familiar with the issue. Fox News was first to report Gabbard's exit, citing her husband's cancer diagnosis."

"Unfortunately, after having done a great job, Tulsi Gabbard will be leaving the Administration on June 30th, he wrote in a statement on his Truth Social platform on Friday. Gabbard has done an incredible job, and we will miss her, the president said, adding that Aaron Lukas, principal deputy director of national intelligence, would serve as acting director of national intelligence. Trump was asking cabinet members last month whether he should replace Gabbard, according to two people briefed on the discussions."

"Gabbard already seemed marginalized last June, when Trump endorsed Israel's decision to attack Iran before the US joined the war by ordering the bombing of the Islamic regime's nuclear facilities. The decision was a public repudiation of Gabbard's earlier testimony on Capitol Hill that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon. Trump seemed to add insult to injury by declaring he did not care what she said, and dismissing her assessment as wrong."

"Within weeks, Gabbard made a public effort to get back into the president's good graces by calling for Barack Obama and several top national security officials in his administration to be prosecuted, alleging that they had conducted a treasonous conspiracy to falsely depict Russia as interfering in the 2016 election on Trump's side. Obama denied the allegations, which seemed designed to satisfy Trump's retribution agenda against his politica"

Read at www.theguardian.com