A group of several dozen officials from across the federal government, including members of U.S. intelligence agencies, helped direct President Donald Trump's efforts to retaliate against his perceived enemies, according to government documents and a source familiar with the effort.
The Interagency Weaponization Working Group, which has been meeting at least since May, brings together officials from the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Departments of Justice and Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), among others, according to two documents seen by Reuters.
On inauguration day in January, Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to work with other federal agencies “to identify and take appropriate action to correct past abuses by the federal government related to the politicization of law enforcement and intelligence.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard earlier this year announced the formation of special teams within their institutions to "root out" those they claim abused state power against Trump.
Shortly after Reuters reached out to the institutions for comment on Monday, Fox News reported on the group's existence, quoting Gabbard as saying that she had “formed the task force.” Key details from the Reuters story have not been made public until now.
Several US officials confirmed to Reuters the existence of the Interagency Task Force, stating that the purpose of the group is to implement Trump's executive order.
“Your reporting is nothing new,” said a White House official who wished to remain anonymous.
Olivia Coleman, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), said: “Americans deserve a government committed to depoliticization, de-escalation, and ensuring that power is never again turned against the people it is meant to serve.”
The existence of the interagency group suggests that the administration's efforts to use state power against Trump's perceived enemies are broader and more systematic than previously reported. Such interagency groups within the government typically serve to coordinate administration policies, share information, and agree on joint actions.
The mission of the interagency group, the source said, is “essentially to deal with the deep state,” a term Trump and his supporters use to refer to the president’s alleged enemies from the Obama and Biden administrations, as well as his first presidential administration.
Reuters was unable to determine the extent to which the group had implemented its plans, nor to confirm whether Trump was personally involved in its work.
We talked about Fauci and Comey.
According to the source, the individuals discussed within the interagency group included former FBI Director James Comey, Anthony Fauci, Trump's top medical adviser during the COVID pandemic, and former senior US military commanders who enforced mandatory vaccination orders for members of the armed forces. Discussions about possible targets included, in addition to current and former government officials, former President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, the source said.
A senior official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) disputed the claims, saying that “there is no targeting of any individual for retaliation.”
“The group is simply engaged in analyzing available facts and evidence that may indicate actions, reports, agencies, individuals, etc. that have unlawfully misused the government to carry out political attacks,” the official said.
Reuters reviewed more than 20 government documents and identified the names of 39 people involved in the interagency group. Five documents related directly to the group, five to the Task Force on Politicization of Institutions announced by Pam Bondi in February, and nine to a smaller subgroup of employees from the Justice Department and several other agencies, which is still dealing with the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters.
The source said that a prominent role in the interagency group is played by Justice Department lawyer Ed Martin, who failed to win Senate confirmation in May to be appointed attorney general in Washington after lawmakers expressed concerns about his support for the Jan. 6 rioters. Martin, who also oversees Bondi’s “politicization” task force at the Justice Department, serves as the department’s pardons officer.
Among those working within or collaborating with the group are opponents of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, as well as those who support Trump's claims that his 2020 presidential victory was stolen, according to a Reuters analysis of their social media accounts and public statements.
A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed that Pam Bondi and Tulsi Gabbard had been ordered by Trump to conduct a review of alleged "politicization" acts from previous administrations, but did not comment on the specific activities of the Interagency Task Force.
Reuters could not determine whether the group has the authority to take any action or order agencies to act, or whether its role is purely advisory.
Russian election interference and the attack on the Capitol
The source said that Paul McNamara, an official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is the leading figure in the interagency group. McNamara is a retired U.S. Marine officer and an aide to Tulsi Gabbard. He is among at least 10 ODNI officials associated with the interagency group, according to two documents. McNamara did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Senators from both parties have already expressed concern about the group's activities; Republicans and Democrats this month approved a defense budget bill that includes a provision requiring Gabbard to disclose the group's members, their functions, funding sources and how they obtained security clearances.
The source said the group had been informed that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the 18-agency US intelligence community, had begun using so-called “technical tools” to search unclassified communications networks for evidence of the existence of the “deep state,” and that it hoped to expand the search to include classified networks known as the Secure Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRnet) and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS).
An ODNI official disputed the claims, saying they were “inaccurate” and “not how the systems work.” Reuters was unable to obtain independent information about the tools in question.
“One of the main goals they insisted on” in the interdepartmental group, the source said, was to remove officials who participated in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and in the development of the 2017 US intelligence assessment that concluded that Moscow had tried to influence the outcome of the election in Trump's favor.
Gabbard said in July that the DIG group had found documents that it claims show former President Barack Obama ordered intelligence agencies to fabricate the 2017 assessment - an accusation that an Obama spokesman dismissed as "nonsense."
The conclusion of the 2017 intelligence assessment was confirmed by a bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released in August 2020 and a review ordered by CIA Director John Ratcliffe earlier this year.
Another topic the interagency group was addressing was retaliation for the prosecution of those involved in the January 6 riots, the source said. Pam Bondi has tasked a Justice Department task force with reviewing the processes used against those involved in the attacks. Some of the documents reviewed by Reuters show that a smaller subgroup of officials from several government agencies has been meeting regularly on the topic. The Justice Department, however, denied in a statement to Reuters that there was a separate group dedicated to the January 6 events.
According to the source, other issues discussed included the Jeffrey Epstein dossier, the trials of Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, and the possibility of revoking the security clearances of transgender US officials. Reuters could not independently confirm that these issues were indeed discussed.
A White House official said that "Epstein's files were not part of the conversation," and disputed how Reuters described the focus of the task force.
The senior ODNI official also denied that the group discussed the Epstein files, the revoking of security clearances for transgender officials, or the Bannon and Navarro cases.
Bannon did not respond to a request for comment, while Navarro said his case was an example of Biden's "politicization of the state apparatus."
Trump loyalists
Five documents related to the interdepartmental group indicate the involvement of at least 39 current and former officials from various state institutions.
Some of the people on the list compiled by Reuters based on documents reviewed by the interdepartmental group have been spreading Trump's claims of election fraud.
One of them is former West Virginia Secretary of State Andrew McCoy “Mac” Warner, the two documents state. Warner, who now works as a lawyer in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, claimed during his 2023 campaign for West Virginia governor that the CIA “stole” the 2020 election from Trump.
Two other documents also name at least four White House officials, an aide to Vice President J.D. Vance, and at least seven Justice Department officials, including former FBI agent Jared Weiss, who was prosecuted for his role in the January 6 attack and is now a member of the Justice Department's Bond task force.
Two documents show that two CIA officers were involved in the interagency group, but Reuters was unable to determine what role they may have played in the group. The CIA is legally barred from conducting operations against American citizens or within US territory except in very limited and specifically designated circumstances.
Officials from other federal agencies that have a role in the interagency task force - including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - did not respond to requests for comment. The Department of Defense (DOD) also did not respond.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the agency is working with other federal agencies "to repair the damage caused by the previous administration."
Prepared by: NB
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