What’s happening
Some FBI and CIA employees are reportedly enraged by President Donald Trump’s plan to overhaul their agencies and are willing to sabotage them in response. Some employees are allegedly destroying evidence, and others may be considering selling out America’s secrets to the enemy.
The facts
→ A whistleblower from the FBI confirmed to journalist Michael Shellenberger that workers inside the agency have been “destroying evidence on servers.”
→ There are speculations as to what evidence employees are destroying, but nothing has yet been confirmed. Director Kash Patel was made aware of this.
→ Patel previously caught heat from FBI employees for wanting to make changes to the agency, including sending thousands of them out into the field “to be cops” — not to sit behind a desk at headquarters.
→ In early February, the CIA sent the White House an unclassified email listing all new hires who have been with the agency for two years or less. This ignited CIA employees’ anger, as they claimed such a move could expose their identities to foreign government hackers, placing them in danger.
→ CIA workers are also furious over President Trump’s push to cut the workforce and audit spending, particularly through the efforts of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
→ DOGE has access to the federal government’s payment system, which is not only used for programs like Social Security for Medicaid, but also by the CIA to funnel payments for sensitive projects.
→ Despite widespread concern in the media, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously assured that DOGE’s access to these systems is limited to “read-only” to conduct financial audits.
→ Now, some of the CIA’s top brass are discussing concerns that disgruntled former employees might commit treason by leaking classified information to foreign adversaries like China or Russia in acts of revenge over firings.
→ These concerns over treason at the CIA come amid recent revelations about another intelligence agency, the National Security Agency, where employees used secret chat rooms for explicit discussions on topics like genital castration, fetishes, polyamory, and more.
Our insights
Reforming institutions like the IRS is one thing; restructuring intelligence agencies is far more complex. These institutions wield immense influence at home and abroad and have worked against Trump for nearly a decade. From advancing the now-discredited Russiagate narrative to intel agencies actively colluding to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, they have repeatedly sought to undermine him. The FBI’s role in January 6 only deepens concerns about their political entanglements.
Their resistance to Trump’s proposed reforms — and the concerns about national security — validates his claim that federal institutions have been politicized. The issue isn’t budget cuts or appointments — it’s an entrenched bureaucracy that has operated with little oversight and clear political motivation. Trump’s current efforts are challenging that.
