The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | February 26th, 2025: Tulsi Gabbard Purges Intel Officers Over Explicit Chat Scandal & US And Ukraine Agree To Mineral-Rights Deal
Wed, 26 Feb 2025
In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: First, a major shakeup in U.S. intelligence, as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fires more than 100 intelligence officers for using a sensitive NSA messaging platform to engage in sexually explicit discussions. Later in the show, after several weeks of tense negotiations, Ukraine has struck an agreement with the Trump administration to grant the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rich mineral resources. The deal could be finalized as soon as Friday, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What major changes did Tulsi Gabbard implement in U.S. intelligence?
It's Wednesday, 26 February. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First, a major and somewhat bizarre shakeup in U.S. intelligence. As Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard fires more than 100 intelligence officers for using a sensitive NSA messaging platform
to engage in sexually explicit discussions. Later in the show, after several weeks of tense negotiation, Ukraine has struck an agreement with the Trump administration to grant the U.S. access to Ukraine's rich mineral resources. The deal could be finalized as soon as Friday when Ukrainian President Zelensky is expected to meet with President Trump at the White House.
Chapter 2: Why were over 100 intelligence officers fired by Tulsi Gabbard?
But first, today's afternoon spotlight. Director of National Intelligence, or DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, is moving quickly to remove more than 100 staffers from the ranks of America's intelligence agencies after discovering activity that she described as a, quote, egregious violation of trust.
On Tuesday, Gabbard issued an order to fire more than 100 intelligence officers from 15 agencies for engaging in sexually explicit discussions on an NSA messaging platform meant for sharing sensitive security matters.
Chapter 3: What controversial topics were discussed on the NSA messaging platform?
The chats, first disclosed publicly by conservative activist and writer Christopher Rufo, included X-rated discussions on sexual fetishes, gender transition surgeries, artificial genitalia, hormone therapy, polyamory, and pronoun usage. That's according to a report from Fox News.
DNI spokesperson Alexa Henning said Tuesday that a memo had been sent out to all intelligence agencies to identify by Friday any employees who participated in the, quote, obscene, pornographic and sexually explicit chats. All those who took part will be terminated from their positions and have their security clearances revoked. Look at that. Consequences for bad actions.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Gabbard said, quote, There are over 100 people from across the intelligence community that contributed to and participated in what is really just an egregious violation of trust. They were brazen in using an NSA platform intended for professional use to conduct this kind of really, really horrific behavior.
And they were brazen in doing this, she said, because when was the last time that anyone was really held accountable? End quote. Well, she's not wrong there. The NSA Intel Lake messaging platform also became a forum for bashing the new DNI, with employees sending messages accusing Gabbard of being, quote, fervently anti-queer, a, quote, Russian agent, and a member of the, quote, MAGA cult. Hmm.
Gabbard said the explicit chats violated the basic rules and standards of workplace professionalism, really, and that the firings were necessary to, quote, clean house, root out that rotten corruption and weaponization and politicization so we can start to rebuild that trust in these institutions. The employees represented a wide array of U.S.
intelligence agencies, including the Defense Intelligence Agency, U.S. Naval Intelligence, the NSA, United States Space Command, and even the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The revelations come amid Gabbard's broader effort to purge diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives from the intelligence community. Her office, in concert with the Central Intelligence Agency,
has already moved to fire an undisclosed number of employees that worked on these diversity initiatives, though those terminations were paused by a federal judge who was reviewing the action and expected to make a final ruling on Thursday.
According to sources who spoke with the conservative Manhattan Institute, the sexually explicit chats were given legitimacy as part of the NSA's DEI efforts, which the agency had previously called, quote, Mission critical? I'm sorry, I tried to say that with a straight face.
Seriously, look, having worked in intelligence operations around the world for a couple decades, I can tell you that there is absolutely nothing mission critical about DEI efforts. The chat logs came from two DEI-focused groups within the NSA's Intelink messenger titled, quote, LBTQA and, quote, IC Pride TWG.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the NSA chat scandal on national security?
Chapter 5: How is the U.S. and Ukraine's mineral-rights deal progressing?
to engage in sexually explicit discussions. Later in the show, after several weeks of tense negotiation, Ukraine has struck an agreement with the Trump administration to grant the U.S. access to Ukraine's rich mineral resources. The deal could be finalized as soon as Friday when Ukrainian President Zelensky is expected to meet with President Trump at the White House.
But first, today's afternoon spotlight. Director of National Intelligence, or DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, is moving quickly to remove more than 100 staffers from the ranks of America's intelligence agencies after discovering activity that she described as a, quote, egregious violation of trust.
On Tuesday, Gabbard issued an order to fire more than 100 intelligence officers from 15 agencies for engaging in sexually explicit discussions on an NSA messaging platform meant for sharing sensitive security matters.
The chats, first disclosed publicly by conservative activist and writer Christopher Rufo, included X-rated discussions on sexual fetishes, gender transition surgeries, artificial genitalia, hormone therapy, polyamory, and pronoun usage. That's according to a report from Fox News.
DNI spokesperson Alexa Henning said Tuesday that a memo had been sent out to all intelligence agencies to identify by Friday any employees who participated in the, quote, obscene, pornographic and sexually explicit chats. All those who took part will be terminated from their positions and have their security clearances revoked. Look at that. Consequences for bad actions.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Gabbard said, quote, There are over 100 people from across the intelligence community that contributed to and participated in what is really just an egregious violation of trust. They were brazen in using an NSA platform intended for professional use to conduct this kind of really, really horrific behavior.
And they were brazen in doing this, she said, because when was the last time that anyone was really held accountable? End quote. Well, she's not wrong there. The NSA Intel Lake messaging platform also became a forum for bashing the new DNI, with employees sending messages accusing Gabbard of being, quote, fervently anti-queer, a, quote, Russian agent, and a member of the, quote, MAGA cult. Hmm.
Gabbard said the explicit chats violated the basic rules and standards of workplace professionalism, really, and that the firings were necessary to, quote, clean house, root out that rotten corruption and weaponization and politicization so we can start to rebuild that trust in these institutions. The employees represented a wide array of U.S.
intelligence agencies, including the Defense Intelligence Agency, U.S. Naval Intelligence, the NSA, United States Space Command, and even the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The revelations come amid Gabbard's broader effort to purge diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives from the intelligence community. Her office, in concert with the Central Intelligence Agency,
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