Trump’s CIA Offers Buyouts to All Its Workers

From The Daily Beast

The Central Intelligence Agency offered buyouts to all of its employees on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported, as part of an effort to mold the agency to President Donald Trump’s priorities.

Employees would receive about eight months of pay and benefits if they accepted the buyouts, according to the report.

The spy agency is also freezing the hiring of job applicants who already have a conditional offer, according to the publication, which quoted an aide to CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Some of those offers may be rescinded, the aide said, if applicants don’t have an aptitude for goals like targeting drug cartels, conducting a trade war, and countering China.

Moving forward, the CIA will be more active in the Western Hemisphere and have nontraditional target nations, according to the aide, who suggested it could spy on the Mexican government during Trump’s ongoing trade negotiations.

A CIA spokeswoman told the outlet the offer of mass buyouts was made in part to “infuse the agency with renewed energy.”

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, as he did when the Trump administration offered buyouts to federal workers late last month, encouraged CIA staffers not to take them.

“There’s no statutory authority that I can see for the president making this offer,” he told the Journal. “The administration immediately knows, you don’t want to work for me. They’ll find some other way to get rid of you. You should not raise your hand.”