Tulsi Gabbard says more than 100 intelligence officers to be fired over sexually explicit chats

WASHINGTON - Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence, said Tuesday that more than 100 federal employees within the intelligence community will be terminated for alleged ties to explicit conversations on an internal agency messaging board. 

Gabbard confirmed the move in an interview with FOX News host Jesse Watters.

Tulsi Gabbard to fire intelligence officers over explicit chats

What we know:

Gabbard, who was sworn in on Feb. 12, said she put out a directive on Tuesday to terminate the employment of and revoke the security clearances of employees who participated in obscene and explicit chatrooms on the National Security Agency's (NSA) "Intelink" messaging platform.

Earlier on Tuesday, she confirmed a report by conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who writes for City Journal and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, that a memo was being prepared to direct all intelligence agencies to identify the employees who participated in the NSA's "obscene, pornographic, and sexually explicit" chats. Some of these discussions included experiences with gender-reassignment surgery, artificial genitalia, hormone therapy, and polyamory, according to FOX News.

DNI spokesperson Alexa Henning also confirmed the planned terminations and revoking of security clearances. 

FILE - Tulsi Gabbard waits to be sworn in as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Feb. 12, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

What they're saying:

"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. What to speak of, like basic rules and standards around professionalism," Gabbard said on "Jesse Watters Primetime." 

"When you see what these people were saying,... they were brazen in using an NSA platform intended for professional use to conduct this kind of really, really horrific behavior," Gabbard added.

Meanwhile, the National Security Agency/Central Security Service said in its own post on X that the NSA was "aware of posts that appear to show inappropriate discussions by IC personnel." 

"IC collaboration platforms are intended to drive mission outcomes," a statement reads. "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."