The Central Intelligence Agency has curtailed its contributions to several intelligence assessments produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, including analyses related to the U.S. campaign in Iran, people familiar with the matter say. The dispute over intelligence sharing and responsibility has intensified for more than a year, officials and current or former agency staff said on condition of anonymity.
At the center of the conflict is a task force created in April 2025 by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. CIA leadership, under Director John Ratcliffe, has accused the task force — known as the Director’s Initiatives Group — of bypassing established intelligence-sharing and declassification procedures. ODNI officials counter that the CIA has routinely blocked the group’s access to required information.
The breakdown in cooperation comes as the U.S. faces multiple national security challenges, including the military campaign in Iran, growing Chinese military capabilities and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Observers say the tensions underscore continuing coordination problems within the intelligence community despite post-9/11 reforms that established a DNI to unify the 18 agencies.
A former deputy director of national intelligence described ODNI’s intended role as the lubricating force that keeps intelligence flowing between agencies, warning that when that function fails, agencies can retreat into narrow silos and raise the risk of intelligence failures.
Gabbard announced she will step down as DNI on June 30, citing her husband’s illness. President Trump named Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director. An ODNI spokeswoman said the president and policymakers continue to receive high-quality intelligence and that ODNI and its component agencies communicate daily with CIA counterparts. She also asserted that the Director’s Initiatives Group operated within ODNI’s oversight authorities and in line with presidential directives.
Reuters earlier reported that Gabbard had wound down the group and reassigned its personnel amid congressional scrutiny. The CIA’s public affairs office praised the agency’s efforts under Ratcliffe to pursue administration priorities aggressively and take risks to outmaneuver adversaries. The White House said the president remains confident in his national security team and dismissed media suggestions of damaging internal divisions.
One significant consequence of the dispute is that the CIA has substantially reduced its participation in analyses produced by the National Intelligence Council, the intelligence community’s premier analytic body. The CIA has historically been a leading contributor to NIC reports, which carry particular weight during conflicts. Two sources said assessments about Iran are among the products the CIA no longer regularly supports. As a result, CIA and ODNI analytic efforts now largely operate independently, the sources said.
Last year, amid the widening rift, the CIA briefly halted publication of NIC reports on an internal distribution service it controls, temporarily limiting access to those products. A government official characterized the interruption as a short processing issue lasting only a few hours.
The friction began soon after Gabbard took office in February 2025. Early actions that contributed to tensions included tighter ODNI control over the Presidential Daily Brief, a document the CIA traditionally helped compile. Tensions deepened after creation of the Director’s Initiatives Group, which officials said was tasked with rooting out alleged politicization in the intelligence community.
The group pursued high-profile initiatives such as declassifying documents linked to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, probing the security of election voting machines and investigating the origins of COVID-19. Critics, including some former intelligence officials, alleged the group was used to target perceived political opponents of the president.
Members of the task force at times pushed the CIA to provide intelligence and materials needed for ODNI-led inquiries and felt the agency did not supply sufficient support. In May 2025, Gabbard removed two senior CIA officers who led the NIC; ODNI officials said the removals were based on workforce surveys and allegations of a toxic environment and politicization, though those claims were not publicly substantiated.
In August, Gabbard revoked security clearances for 37 current and former officials, a move that included revealing the identity of an undercover CIA officer overseas. ODNI accused the officials of politicizing and leaking intelligence but did not present public evidence. Some former officials said the action was partly retaliation for a 2017 intelligence assessment that detailed a Russian influence operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election.
The dispute became public when a CIA officer detailed to the Director’s Initiatives Group told a Senate panel that the CIA had blocked the group’s access to intelligence on COVID-19 origins. That allegation prompted an investigation by the intelligence community inspector general’s office, an independent watchdog based at ODNI. Sources said the inquiry is ongoing, and Reuters was unable to determine its scope.
The struggle between the CIA and ODNI highlights persistent institutional tensions over authority, access to sensitive information and the proper handling of politically charged topics — issues that officials warn could affect national security analysis at a critical time.