Intelligence sharing breaks down inside the Trump administration

WASHINGTON, Nov 3- Intelligence sharing on Iran and other global threats has slowed across the U.S. government during President Donald Trump’s second term. In some cases, it has stopped for a time, according to eight sources familiar with the matter.

The slowdown affects not only reports submitted to Congress but also the flow of analysis and information between intelligence agencies, according to the officials. The issue has not been previously reported.

Former officials and outside experts warned that these gaps could leave policymakers with an incomplete understanding of the threats facing the United States. Some drew comparisons to the intelligence failures that were exposed following the al Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001.

The problems have emerged at a particularly sensitive moment, as the administration considers whether to resume strikes on Iran after Tuesday’s midterm elections.

The difficulties began under Tulsi Gabbard, who served as director of national intelligence until her resignation in June. Her tenure was marked by deep tensions between her office and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Those tensions have eased somewhat since Gabbard’s departure. However, two officials said that some of the damage to intelligence coordination and trust between agencies remains.

The CIA has stopped writing joint assessments with the National Intelligence Council, an analysis group inside the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the officials said. As a result, fewer reports bring together the views of the whole intelligence community on subjects such as Iran.

The council’s assessments are meant to combine the views of the country’s 18 intelligence agencies. For years, it relied heavily on the CIA for analysis on Iran and Russia.

The CIA still shares intelligence with the council and works with it on some reports, the officials said. But its analysts now focus on the agency’s own assessments.

Since then, the council, which also lost staff to cuts, has slowed its output, two people familiar with the matter said. None of its assessments have focused on the war with Iran, five current and former officials said.

An official at the national intelligence director’s office said the council has kept its output close to historic levels.

CIA spokesperson Liz Lyons said the agency “participates fully” in providing assessments through the council and through the President’s Daily Brief, which the director’s office leads.

Congress was also cut off for a time. Lawmakers and their staff briefly stopped getting intelligence reports from Gabbard’s office in the days after the United States military intervention in Iran in June 2025, two people familiar with the matter said.

It happened again after the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January this year, they said. Gabbard’s team had accused lawmakers of leaking to the press.

Her office also stopped briefing Congress on election threats in 2025, according to two people familiar with the matter and a former official.

Jay Clayton, who was sworn in as director of national intelligence in August, has restarted those briefings, officials said.

One official said that Gabbard did not use the council, but that Clayton values it. In a statement, the director’s office said Clayton is committed to ensuring that the intelligence community has the resources it needs to inform decision-makers and keep Americans safe.

The trouble began last year, amid deep cuts to national security agencies, including the CIA and the director’s office. Trump also moved to remove or sideline officials he viewed as disloyal.

Some analysts who remain in their positions now take care not to write assessments that conflict with the White House’s views, fearing retaliation, according to two former officials and one current official. They did not specify which topics were being avoided.

Julia Curlee, a former CIA analyst, said analysts are still doing their work but that the White House has rendered it irrelevant. She said she was fired from Trump’s National Security Council last year because she is transgender.

“The president treats unwelcome information as disloyalty,” Curlee said. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Officials described the clash between the CIA and the director’s office as one of the biggest turf wars between intelligence agencies in three decades. The director’s office was created after the September 11 attacks.

The feud began when Gabbard’s office revoked the security clearances of current and former intelligence officials a year ago, three former officials said. It got bad enough that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles had to step in several times to calm things down, they said.

Former officials say they’re worried. Some are working on a bipartisan basis at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution on plans to rebuild the intelligence community under the next administration, four former officials said.

Beth Sanner, a former deputy director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, said policymakers need a fuller and more joined-up view of a complex world but are getting less of it.

Morgan Muir, a former deputy director of national intelligence under President Joe Biden, warned that weakening shared institutions leaves officials free to choose which agency to listen to. He likened it to creating “little lily pads.”

There have been other clashes. Late last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation stopped sharing some intelligence with the National Counterterrorism Center for several weeks, two former officials said.

That happened after the center’s then-head, Joe Kent, and his staff tried to look into the shooting of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Leaders at the Federal Bureau of Investigation told Kent they believed the center was going beyond its authority, the former officials said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation didn’t respond to a request for comment.