Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard plans to slash 40 percent of the agency’s staff by October in a move she said would help transform the head of the intelligence community into “ODNI 2.0.”

Gabbard's cuts would reassign roles or eliminate various centers within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), including those that monitor foreign efforts to influence Americans; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including biological weapons; and a team monitoring for cyberattacks.

A fact sheet from ODNI boasts the department has already slashed 500 jobs and that the future cuts would save an estimated $700 million at the agency, which helps coordinate among 18 different agencies that make up the sprawling U.S. intelligence community.

Targeted in the restructuring is the Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC), which has dedicated itself to tracking the efforts of U.S. adversaries to influence the U.S. public through social media and disinformation campaigns designed to sow division and shift votes.

The Trump administration argues the center has been used “to justify the suppression of free speech” and cited its work in responding to the Hunter Biden laptop.

ODNI also accused the Foreign Malign Influence Center of "falsely alleging Putin ‘aspired’ to help President Trump win the 2016 election,” though that conclusion is shared by most reports that have evaluated Russia’s efforts in the 2016 contest, including in a bipartisan report from the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Gabbard argued that other elements of the........

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