Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 19, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was established when Democratic President Harry S. Truman signed into law the National Security Act of 1947. The agency turns 79 this year. But former CIA officials John Sipher and Julia Curlee voice strong concerns about the agency's future in a scathing article for the conservative website The Bulwark.
Sipher and Curlee are vehemently critical of CIA leader John Ratcliffe in their piece, arguing that his loyalty is not to the agency's wellbeing, but to President Donald Trump.
"A CIA director must be measured against the office's demands: independence, intellectual honesty, and willingness to tell a president what he does not want to hear," the former CIA officials write. "We spent decades at the agency — one running clandestine operations abroad, the other writing analysis and briefing presidents, including this one. We took the same oath as Ratcliffe: to defend the Constitution, not a president's agenda or grievances. By that standard, John Ratcliffe is failing."
Sipher and Curlee continue, "By undermining the independence and credibility of an apolitical intelligence service, Ratcliffe is doing serious damage to national security. He has repeatedly used the agency's authority and prestige to validate President Trump's conspiracy theories: that Russia's help in 2016 was a Democratic 'hoax,' and that China 'stole' the election in 2020. His misuse of declassification dates to 2020, when, as director of national intelligence, he publicly released unverified Russian intelligence about Hillary Clinton, even conceding that it might 'reflect exaggeration or fabrication.'"
The former CIA officials note that Ratcliffe is often described as "the adult in the room" when it comes to Trump appointees. But they warn that Ratcliffe's "politicization" of the CIA serves Trump, not the agency itself.
"Ratcliffe's politicization … goes far beyond selective and misleading declassification," according to Sipher and Curlee. "On his watch, a serving CIA officer was publicly named and pushed out, other intelligence officials were fired for speaking truth to power, and decade-old analysis was retracted because the administration didn't like the topics. The silences are as telling as the statements. In January, then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stood beside FBI agents seizing 2020 ballots in Fulton County, Georgia. Ratcliffe said nothing. When Gabbard declassified a disputed report on the Russia investigation, he volunteered that he 'strongly supports the public release.'"
Sipher and Curlee continue, "Worse, he has allowed the White House to misuse the CIA to tell Americans their votes were stolen. It is the latest blow to the post-Church Committee wall between the agency and domestic politics, and Congress has mostly just watched."