Trump administration task force to consider declassifying COVID-19 origins materials

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new government task force will consider big changes to America’s intelligence community and examine whether material about the origins of COVID-19 and other topics of public interest should be declassified, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said.

Known as the Director’s Initiatives Group, the panel will study how intelligence agencies can cut costs in line with recent executive orders from President Donald Trump, the department said Tuesday in a statement announcing the creation of the task force.

The group also will examine ways intelligence agencies have become politicized or weaponized, the department said.

Among its other duties, the panel will review efforts to prevent unauthorized disclosures of classified material and examine whether the government should declassify material regarding the origins of COVID-19 and other issues of public interest, including federal efforts to influence online speech and investigations into mysterious health symptoms reported by some U.S. diplomats and government employees that were once dubbed “ Havana syndrome.”

“President Trump promised the American people maximum transparency and accountability,” Gabbard wrote in the statement. “We are committed to executing the president’s vision and focusing the intelligence community on its core mission: ensuring our security by providing the president and policymakers with timely, apolitical, objective, relevant intelligence to inform their decision-making to ensure the safety, security and freedom of the American people.”

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The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not specify how the task force would be appointed or when it expects to submit its recommendations to Gabbard.

Gabbard’s announcement comes as the Trump administration has vowed to shake up the nation’s spy services, a longtime target of the president’s criticism. Last week, Trump abruptly fired the four-star general who led the National Security Agency.

The CIA and NSA have offered voluntary resignations to some employees. The CIA also has said it plans to lay off an unknown number of recently hired employees. Last week, a federal judge blocked the administration’s efforts to fire some intelligence workers who were assigned to diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

ODNI’s task force announcement also comes after top national security officials in the administration, including Gabbard, were criticized for using the popular messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive military plans — with a journalist on the text chain. Gabbard later called the incident a mistake.

The push to declassify more material, meanwhile, comes after the Trump administration released thousands of previously withheld documents about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

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