In latest purge, Hegseth removes head of Pentagon intelligence agency, other senior officials
It was not immediately clear why Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency, was fired
Highlights:
- Unclear why Kruse was fired, but he is latest official removed by Hegseth
- Democratic lawmaker slams move as politicizing intelligence
- Trump has gone after officials who are seen as at odds with him
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the head of the Pentagon's intelligence agency and two other senior military commanders, three US officials told Reuters on Friday, the latest move by President Donald Trump's administration to purge officials at the Pentagon.
It was not immediately clear why Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency, was fired.
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Hegseth's purge broadened later on Friday. One US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that in addition to Kruse, Hegseth had also ordered the removal of the chief of US Naval reserves and the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command.
All three officials said it was unknown why they were fired.
"The firing of yet another senior national security official underscores the Trump administration's dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country," said US Senator Mark Warner, who is the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
The firing was first reported by the Washington Post.
LATEST FIRING
The move appeared to be the latest attempt by the Trump administration to penalize current and former military, intelligence and law enforcement officials whose views have been seen as at odds with Trump.
In April, Trump fired General Timothy Haugh as director of the National Security Agency, in a purge that included more than a dozen staff at the White House national security council.
Hegseth has also gone after uniformed military officials at the Pentagon. In February, he fired Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was dismissed along with five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership.
The chief of the US Air Force made a surprise announcement on Monday that he planned to retire only halfway through his tenure.
While it was not clear exactly why Kruse was fired, it comes after a preliminary DIA assessment leaked to the news media that said the June 22 US airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities had set Tehran's program back only a few months, a finding contradicting Trump's claim that the targets were "obliterated."
The leaking of the assessment, which Reuters also reported, enraged Trump. The White House denounced the top-secret assessment as "flat out wrong," and Trump attacked CNN, the New York Times and other outlets that obtained the report, calling them "scum" and "FAKE NEWS."
The Trump administration has conducted a sweeping purge of US military and intelligence officers and diplomats that it says is part of an effort to slash the size of the US government, shrinking the federal budget and punishing what it describes as the "politicization or weaponization" of intelligence.
News of Kruse's firing came two days after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced that she was revoking on Trump's orders the security clearances of 37 current and former US intelligence professionals.
This week's security clearance revocations were only the latest of scores of such revocations of Trump's second term. They have included Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 election, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost last year's vote.
Earlier this week Gabbard also announced the first major overhaul of her office since its creation, slashing personnel by more than 40% by October 1 and saving more than $700 million per year.
