House Democrats to investigate Trump’s handling of US spy agencies

Résumé détaillé

House Democrats to investigate Trump’s handling of US spy agencies after claims of politicisation, firings and intelligence pressure. Read more at straitstimes.com.

There has been little scrutiny of the state of the US intelligence community by the Republican-run Congress during the first two years of US President Donald Trump’s second term.

WASHINGTON – Democrats in the US House of Representatives, who will control key committees in 2027, are preparing investigations into what they say was President Donald Trump’s politicisation and gutting of US spy agencies, including whether analysts have censored themselves to avoid retaliation.

“There’s absolutely evidence that analysts are hesitant to write on topics that they think might be controversial. There’s absolutely evidence of a decline in morale in the analytic community because of the pressures that they are under,” US Representative Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat who will become chairman of the House intelligence committee in January, told Reuters on Nov 10.

There has been little scrutiny of the state of the US intelligence community by the Republican-run Congress during the first two years of Trump’s second term, during which the administration fired or forced out hundreds of officers and disrupted the production of analyses on key issues, including Iran.

Himes said that would change after he takes over the committee in January, when Democrats assume control of the House of Representatives and the Senate following their sweep of the Nov 3 midterm elections.

He did not disclose how the investigations would proceed, but said that one focus would be what he called retaliatory firings.

“We’re going to tell the story of the patriots who were fired because they said something that was inconsistent with what the president wanted to be true,” Himes said.

Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in 2025 cut her agency’s staff by about 40%.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe publicly pledged to reduce his workforce by more than 1,000 positions over several years.

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