Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the head of one of the Pentagon’s primary intelligence agencies, a senior defense official confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Hegseth fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse from his role as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), adding to the list of officials fired since the secretary assumed office. The latest dismissal comes after a leaked DIA preliminary assessment in June said that U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities that month did not cause lasting damage, an assessment which was widely contradicted by numerous agencies and officials.
Hegseth has fired multiple national security officials since stepping into the role, including Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, and Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan. Many of the officials fired under Hegseth had previously advocated for left-wing initiatives under former President Joe Biden.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The leaked DIA report was published by CNN in June, and was characterized as a “low confidence” assessment at the time. One of the article’s authors was Natasha Bertrand, the author of the now infamous story claiming over 50 former U.S. intel officials considered the Hunter Biden laptop to be a likely instrument of “Russian disinformation.”
The DIA is the main, in-house intelligence arm for the Pentagon, normally conducting military-related intelligence.
President Donald Trump’s administration has also fired multiple intelligence officials since assuming office in January, including National Security Agency head Wendy Noble in April and National Intelligence Council Chair Michael Collins in May.
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