Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Tuesday that more than 100 intelligence officers will be fired for participating in sexually explicit messages in National Security Agency chat rooms.
“There are over 100 people from across the intelligence community that contributed to and participated in what is really just an egregious violation of trust,” Gabbard said in an interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters. “I put out a directive today that they will all be terminated and their security clearances will be revoked.”
“They were brazen in using an NSA platform intended for professional use to conduct this kind of really, really horrific behavior,” she added.
The messages allegedly exchanged in the chatroom were first reported by conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who writes for City Journal.
DNI spokesperson Alexa Henning said earlier Tuesday on X that various intelligence agencies have been directed to identify and terminate employees who participated in the sexually explicit conversations by Friday, as well as revoke their security clearances.
“The DNI sent a memo directing all intelligence agencies to identify the employees who participated in the NSA’s ‘obscene, pornographic, and sexually explicit’ chatrooms and to terminate their employment and revoke their security clearances,” Henning said.
A senior administration official told CNN that members of the rank and file in the intelligence community have been reaching out to Gabbard about the issue.
Gabbard’s comments come hours after the NSA said that it was aware of posts that “appear to show inappropriate discussions” by intelligence personnel and announced that investigations were underway.
“Potential misuse of these platforms by a small group of individuals does not represent the community. Investigations to address this misuse of government systems are ongoing,” the agency said in a statement on X.
CNN’s Jake Tapper contributed to this report.
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
