WASHINGTON, August 21. /TASS/. Tulsi Gabbard, director of US National Intelligence, plans to slash her office staff by around 40% as well as suspend the operations of a center on counteracting the influence of foreign countries, including Russia, the agency’s statement reads.

According to the document, "a long-overdue transformation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)" is in the works. The overhaul "will reduce ODNI by over 40% by the end of fiscal year 2025 and save taxpayers over $700 million per year and better enable ODNI to focus on fulfilling its critical role of serving as the central hub for intelligence integration, strategic guidance, and oversight over the Intelligence Community."

In a fact sheet on the changes, the agency said several departments it argued were redundant would be refocused. Those include the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which describes its mission as "mitigating threats to democracy." Earlier, its employees insisted that other countries, including Russia and China, had been carrying out information campaigns aiming to affect the US.

Gabbard noted that "over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence."

Immediately after Donald Trump took office as US President, the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was overseen by US entrepreneur Elon Musk, began a massive audit of spending from the US budget.