Washington — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in the last month issued a memo ordering U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct a review of whether random polygraph examinations of their employees or contractors are feasible.
At the same time, the directive emphasizes the need for tests to include questions about whether employees or potential applicants have leaked information to members of the press as part of the standard battery of questions during the security clearance adjudication process, CBS News has learned.
While questions related to leaks have been commonplace for U.S. intelligence community employees and applicants, the Trump administration is intensifying efforts to curb disclosures of classified and sensitive information by warning intelligence community members they’ll face additional scrutiny over leaks to media outlets. In many ways, Gabbard’s directive echoes earlier hard-line stances undertaken by previous administrations of both political parties to root out sources of revelations that were either potentially damaging to national security or politically embarrassing.
Two sources familiar with Gabbard’s memo said that the directive emphasizes polygraph test questions related to leaks of information to the press and said the tests would become more routine in conjunction with counterintelligence investigations. The officials, who spoke to CBS News under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said that while the U.S. government has a responsibility to safeguard its information, the mandate could stem the flow of information the public has the right to know, even if it’s unclassified.
An official with the Office of Director of National Intelligence, known as ODNI, told CBS News that while the directive does reinforce questions related to leaks to members of the press, Gabbard’s memo does not establish new policies, but instead emphasizes existing regulations and legal statutes. The directive also does not direct agencies to begin random polygraph examinations but instead asks agencies within the U.S. intelligence community to review the feasibility of conducting random polygraphs in conjunction with counterintelligence investigations.
The official said the review is based on internal U.S. intelligence community findings that indicated a lack of polygraph examinations has emboldened former U.S. intelligence community members to spy on behalf of U.S. adversaries. The ODNI official was unable to provide further details on the study or when it was conducted. The official emphasized that Gabbard’s directive does not order additional screenings.
Her directive is emblematic of a return to the aggressive approach taken under the Obama administration following the massive disclosure of classified information to journalists by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. In 2014, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper instructed federal agencies to question applicants and employees about whether they had shared classified material with the news media, according to the McClatchy news service, which obtained Clapper’s policy directive under a Freedom of Information Act request.
Both the Obama and Bush administrations were heavily criticized for launching FBI investigations that targeted journalists’ government sources and using the Espionage Act, a law enacted shortly after the U.S. entered World War I to prosecute spies and traitors, to successfully convict government officials who leaked confidential information to journalists. Both administrations ordered additional polygraph examinations and employed aggressive tactics to find leakers, seizing phone and email records of reporters and intelligence community members.
“Since the start of President Trump’s second term, we have seen numerous unauthorized disclosures of classified information, which have the potential to damage U.S. strategic alliances and credibility and endanger sources and methods vital to intelligence gathering,” DNI spokesperson Olivia Coleman told CBS News.
She added, “The fact that deep state actors leaked information about DNI Gabbard’s directive, aimed at preventing leaks and protecting classified information, to the media is both deeply ironic and a powerful reminder of why her efforts to identify and deter leakers is urgently necessary.”
Earlier this year, Gabbard said she made criminal referrals regarding two cases to the Justice Department, with a third on its way, which included an illegal leak of information to The Washington Post about the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
While Gabbard’s mandate reinforces policies implemented by previous administrations and existing legal statutes, it could generate a fresh round of criticism echoing what previous administrations faced over press freedoms and the relationship between journalists and government sources.
Critics have historically argued that these types of policy directives are intended to create a chilling effect between national security reporters and U.S. government whistleblowers. Activists have said it’s problematic to prosecute officials who leak to the press under the same law — the Espionage Act — used to prosecute spies and traitors.
“This is an obnoxious flexing of bureaucratic muscle by yet another Trump agency head seeking to intimidate and abuse their workforce. Gabbard has the authority to impose this requirement, but it’s a serious waste of finite resources that will do little but force out a few officials and disrupt agency operations in the interim,” Bradley Moss, a national security attorney, who specializes in national security and the security clearance process told CBS News.
Moss is a partner at the Washington, D.C., law office of Mark Zaid, whose clearance was stripped in March by President Trump following an executive order. Zaid, who filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in May to have his security clearance restored, had represented a whistleblower key to Mr. Trump’s first impeachment.
“Everyone should keep an eye on those officials who are exempt from this requirement and how closely politically aligned they are with Gabbard,” said Moss.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported last week that the Pentagon is planning to implement widespread random polygraph testing while also requiring service members, civilian employees and contract workers within the Office of the Defense Secretary and the Joint Staff to sign a nondisclosure agreement, according to two unnamed people familiar with the proposal and documents obtained by the newspaper.
In response to the reporting by the Post last week, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told CBS News: “The Washington Post’s reporting is untrue and irresponsible anonymously sourced garbage.”
Eleanor Watson
contributed to this report.
