The intelligence community’s watchdog office has a mole in it.
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard squeezed one of her own advisers into the subagency tasked with monitoring her, potentially compromising the office’s integrity, according to two U.S. officials that spoke with The Washington Post.
That plant is Dennis Kirk, who was installed in the office on May 9. Kirk still reports to the director of national intelligence, one of the officials told the Post.
Kirk is a known player in Trumpworld. He was present during Donald Trump’s first term, serving as an adviser in the Office of Personnel Management. He also co-authored a portion of Project 2025 that focused on the federal workforce.
The watchdog office is currently investigating the Trump administration’s Signalgate scandal, in which several Cabinet members not only relied on Signal to discuss sensitive, real-time war details about bombing Yemen, but also mistakenly invited The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief to bear witness to the shocking national security blunder. Gabbard was included in the text chain.
On Thursday, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Representative Stephen F. Lynch, issued a letter to the inspector general of the intelligence community demanding to know how Kirk had climbed his way into the watchdog entity, and how his installment might influence the office’s Signal investigation.
Writing to acting Inspector General Tamara A. Johnson, Lynch underscored that the matter was of “grave concern,” and that Gabbard had “dubious legal authority” to appoint Kirk to the office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) in the first place.
“The appointment of a highly partisan advocate for prioritizing personal loyalty to President Trump above independence and professionalism in the federal government — and one who apparently answers to DNI Gabbard rather than to you — in a senior role within IC IG raises troubling questions about the independence of the IC IG and whether there exists a need for Congress to strengthen protections for the IC IG’s independence,” Lynch wrote.
Lynch further ordered the office to provide a detailed job description for Kirk’s role, the statute that allowed Gabbard to install Kirk into the watchdog office, a list of officials that Kirk reports to, an explanation of where Kirk’s position falls in ICIG’s organizational structure, and whether Kirk is involved in or has any influence over the Signal investigation.
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