CIA lays off some recently hired officers as Trump shakes up intelligence community

DAVID KLEPPER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Central Intelligence Agency will fire an unreleased number of junior officers as President Donald Trump's efforts to downsize and reshape the federal government reverberate through America's intelligence community.

The agency will review personnel hired within the past two years, an agency spokesperson said Thursday, and those officers with behavioral issues or who are deemed a poor fit for intelligence work will be laid off. The spokesperson said not everyone proves to be able to handle the pressures of the job.

The cuts are part of sweeping staffing reductions at agencies across the federal government made by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk. Some agencies, like the U.S. Agency for International Development, have been largely dismantled. While intelligence agencies have been spared the deepest cuts, they haven't been immune.

In February the CIA offered buyouts to some employees. The typically secretive agency has not said how many employees accepted the offer.

Trump's recently confirmed CIA Director John Ratcliffe has promised to overhaul the agency and return its focus to human-gathered intelligence.

The CIA and other Western spy agencies have played a key role in supplying information to Ukraine about Russian war plans and capabilities. Ratcliffe said this week that intelligence sharing with Ukraine has been suspended, but characterized the interruption as potentially temporary.