The Pentagon has fired the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, a senior defense official and a senator said on Friday, weeks after the agency drafted a preliminary report that contradicted President Trump’s contention that Iran’s nuclear sites had been “obliterated” in U.S. military strikes.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse is the latest senior Pentagon official, and the second top military intelligence official, to be removed since Mr. Trump’s return to office. Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, the head of the National Security Agency, was ousted this spring after a right-wing conspiracy theorist complained about him.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the firing of General Kruse, who had a long career of nonpartisan service, was troubling.
“The firing of yet another senior national security official underscores the Trump administration’s dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country,” Mr. Warner said.
The senior defense official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said that General Kruse would no longer serve as the intelligence agency’s director, although it was not clear if he would be offered a different position in the Air Force or if he would retire. Two congressional officials said lawmakers were notified on Friday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had fired General Kruse because of “a loss of confidence” in the senior officer.
Days after U.S. military strikes hit three of Iran’s nuclear sites in June, the Defense Intelligence Agency drafted a preliminary assessment that suggested Tehran’s nuclear program was set back only by months. Reports about the assessment by CNN and The New York Times prompted a fierce backlash from the White House.
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