The group includes the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Justice Department, FBI, and CIA.
The Trump administration is taking a whole-of-government approach to exposing the perceived weaponization of government during the Biden administration.
The administration created the Interagency Weaponization Working Group to streamline information sharing across several agencies, including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Justice Department, FBI, and CIA, a senior ODNI official told National Review.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard formed the group to execute Trump’s day-one executive order instructing agencies to end weaponization and expose the Biden administration’s conduct. The working group meets biweekly to share information, coordinate, and execute Trump’s executive order.
Fox News first reported on the group’s existence.
Trump ordered “the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the heads of the appropriate departments and agencies within the Intelligence Community” to “take all appropriate action to review the activities of the Intelligence Community over the last 4 years and identify any instances” of government weaponization.
Interagency coordination is necessary to “ensure accountability” for the Biden administration’s perceived weaponization of government “against the American people,” not just Trump himself, the executive order says.
Under the executive order, ODNI must submit a report for Trump recommending actions to be taken to eliminate political weaponization. Gabbard will have to work with other intelligence agencies to review the intelligence community’s policies and compile the report.
The ODNI’s working group will attempt to gain a better understanding of the Biden administration’s use of the federal government against political and ideological opponents.
Those scandals include targeting Catholics and concerned parents who protested at school board meetings, pressuring tech companies to censor speech, monitoring Gabbard and GOP lawmakers, and directing banks to flag MAGA-related transactions.
Trump routinely accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the federal government against him through special counsel Jack Smith, who pursued two criminal cases against Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign. Neither Smith’s classified documents case in Florida nor his Capitol riot case in Washington, D.C., ever made it to trial because of significant legal setbacks.
Soon after Trump won the 2024 election, Smith folded his cases and resigned instead of giving Trump the pleasure of firing him.
The Trump administration’s disclosures have already brought to light further information about several of the Biden-era scandals that inspired Trump’s executive order. FBI director Kash Patel has repeatedly vowed to ensure accountability for the perceived weaponization of the federal government in Trump’s first term and Biden’s presidency.
To that end, Patel has fired FBI personnel responsible for monitoring GOP Senators’s phone records and communications in connection with the FBI’s sweeping anti-Trump investigation related to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Patel has similarly overseen terminations related to the FBI’s anti-Catholic activities.
Likewise, Gabbard has already taken action to combat the weaponization of the intelligence community. In August, she announced a plan to cut 40 percent of ODNI staff and eliminate or reorient certain offices within the agency. The staff reduction is consistent with a promise she made during the confirmation process to downsize the agency back to its original size.
Gabbard also revoked the security clearances of dozens of current and former intelligence officials for allegedly abusing public trust by conducting political activities.
She has accused former President Barack Obama and top administration officials of orchestrating a “treasonous” conspiracy to peddle false claims of collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Obama’s office issued a public statement in July dismissing Gabbard’s allegations as a baseless distraction.
The Trump administration is now pursuing criminal prosecutions of several of the president’s political opponents including former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). Those moves have prompted Trump’s opponents to lob accusations of weaponization back at him.