The CIA moved to reject an unspecified number of officers who were tackling recruitment and diversity issues when it became one of the largest mass firing in the agency's history, according to former officials.
The potential for executives comes as agencies move to comply with the spirit of President Trump's executive order that bans efforts to diversify the federal workforce.
On Friday, the CIA began calling officers who took administrative leave and ordered them to resign or fire, but federal courts quickly halted the case. A judge in the Eastern District of Virginia is scheduled to hold a hearing Monday to consider a temporary restraining order against the agency.
In court filings Thursday, government lawyers could try and fire more people following the White House executive order that CIA director John Ratcliffe ends diversity employment. He said. Officer's attorney Kevin Carroll said the filing suggested that the filing was just beginning.
The president often orders policy changes in government agencies, but it is rare for him to fire priorities from previous administrations, a former official said. For example, former President Barack Obama ended the CIA interrogation program launched under former President George W. Bush, but did not fire officials accused of torture al-Qaeda prisoners.
The CIA last made a massive layoff in 1977 when President Jimmy Carter ordered agents to stay away from secret actions. Stansfield Turner, then CIA director, fired 198 officers involved in secret actions. But even its miniaturization was done with some care and prevented people from sparing near retirement ages.
Carroll, a former CIA officer and attorney representing the 21 intelligence officers who sued to stop new firing, said about 51 officers working in diversity and recruitment reviewed his position. He said that.
None of the executives the agency wants to fire are diversity experts, Carroll said. He and other former officials were ordered to take the post during the Biden administration for their persuasion and recruitment skills, and in some cases, abilities that they honed while working as a spy abroad. He said that.
“No one will be involved in the CIA and become a diversity recruiter,” Carroll said.
Some officials previously said they wanted the agency to escape diversity-related terminations and could return to the old job of recruiting spies overseas.
A former official said the national security exception that the White House introduced to federal downsizing should have prevented layoffs. Carroll said Trump's executive order required agents to terminate their diversity programs, but it does not mean that people who carry out the initiative will be fired.
In a legal filing Thursday, government lawyers alleged that the restraining orders that hinder the dismissal would “hazard the public interest.” That would constrain Mr Ratcliffe's ability to make personnel decisions, and authorities' lawyers said the Supreme Court was due to “extraordinary respect.”
Expanding the diversity of the CIA and other intelligence agencies was a priority for William J. Burns, who led the agency during the Biden administration, and former Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
Carroll said his clients were implementing Intelligence Reporting Leaders and Congress' orders, requiring the recent approval law to make efforts to diversify Intelligence Reporting agencies.
“More than any other organization in the US government, the CIA has diversity requirements,” Carroll said. “There needs to be someone who can mix it overseas.”
