Gabbard Fires NIC Acting Chair Collins and Vice Chair Langan-Riekhof, Announces NIC Relocation

DNI Tulsi Gabbard fired Mike Collins, the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Maria Langan-Riekhof, the NIC's vice chair, on May 14, 2025. Both had overseen the April 7, 2025 community-wide assessment concluding that Maduro does not direct Tren de Aragua. Gabbard's office cited their "opposition to the US president" as the reason — no analytic failure report was produced. Gabbard simultaneously announced the NIC would be relocated from CIA headquarters in Langley to ODNI's Liberty Crossing facility in McLean, Virginia, bringing it under her direct daily oversight. She also added a new internal review group to scrutinize sensitive assessments before formal coordination across agencies. Senator Mark Warner, the Senate Intelligence Committee's vice chair, called the firings "purging intelligence officials over a report that the Trump administration finds politically inconvenient." Congressman Joaquin Castro similarly condemned the action as an attack on intelligence independence.