Trump's paranoid security state
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo illustration: Maura Losch/Axios. Photos: Win McNamee/Getty Images, Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images
America's top national security agencies have been using polygraph tests, seeking employees' communications and threatening criminal investigations, all in the name of ferreting out leakers or ensuring loyalty.
Why it matters: The recent revelations expose the deep mistrust between top national security officials and their own staffs — starting at the top, with a commander-in-chief who considers himself a victim of Deep State abuses.
Driving the news: The FBI has subjected senior agents to lie-detector tests to find the sources for fairly innocuous news stories, and even to ask whether agents have ever disparaged Director Kash Patel, the NYT's Adam Goldman reports.
- Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, made their names in part by castigating the FBI before being tapped to run it.
- Relations with career agents have been contentious from the start, and a number of senior agents have been reassigned or put on administrative leave.
Zoom out: The FBI isn't the only agency pulling out the polygraph.
- A March memo from Joe Kasper, then chief of staff to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, stated that polygraphs would be used as part of a leak hunt. Incidentally, that probe devolved into a power struggle that saw Kasper himself ousted.
- The Department of Homeland Security also said in March that it was using lie detector tests to try to find out who was providing alleged tip-offs ahead of ICE raids.
- Agencies all across the federal government have used the devices, which aren't considered highly reliable, for even fairly minor leaks, per Reuters. In one case, FEMA staffers who attended a March meeting involving Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem were subjected to polygraph tests after some contents of the meeting became public.
What they're saying: "President Trump and the entire administration take operational security seriously – and that commitment was crucial to the success of operations like Midnight Hammer, which totally obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Axios.
- "We certainly do not trust leakers who provide sensitive information to the media, or who commit felonies by leaking top secret intelligence."
Zoom in: A new unit under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is seeking email and chat records from across America's spy agencies to find employees who may be undermining President Trump's agenda, the Washington Post reports.
- The goal, The Post says, is to run that bulk data through AI programs to uncover malfeasance. Gabbard's spokesperson said the new unit's mission was "to expose the truth and end the politicization and weaponization of intelligence against Americans."
Gabbard has repeatedly accused the spy agencies she now oversees of "weaponizing" or "politicizing" intelligence under previous leadership.
- She also announced in April that she'd referred multiple leaks to the DOJ for criminal investigations. "These deep-state criminals leaked classified information for partisan political purposes to undermine POTUS' agenda," she said.
The bottom line: Trump and his team now run the government. But that doesn't mean they trust it.
