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A secret group of dozens of federal officials, including intelligence personnel, is assisting the President donald trump In its stated objective of retribution against perceived opponents, according to government records and an informed source.
The organization, which operates under the name of the Interagency Weaponization Working Group, has been meeting since at least May.
Its ranks come from a wide range of government departments, including the White House, Office of director of national intelligenceCentral Intelligence Agency, Department of Justice and Defense, Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Communications Commission, among others, as revealed by two official documents.
The formation of the group follows an executive order issued by Trump on his inauguration day in January. This directive directed the Attorney General to cooperate with other federal agencies “to take appropriate actions to identify and correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to the weaponization of law enforcement and the weaponization of the intelligence community.”
Earlier this year, the Attorney General palm bondi And Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard publicly announced the establishment of internal agency groups. Their stated objective is to “root out” individuals they claim have abused government power against Trump.
Shortly after Reuters sought comment from the agencies on Monday, Fox News reported the group’s existence, citing Gabbard as saying she “set up this working group.” Key details in the Reuters story have not been previously reported.
Multiple US officials confirmed the existence of the Interagency Weaponization Working Group to Reuters in response to questions and said the group’s purpose was to carry out Trump’s executive order.
“None of this reporting is new,” said a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
ODNI spokeswoman Olivia Coleman said, “Americans deserve a government that is committed to disarming, depoliticizing, and ensuring that power is never again turned against the people it is meant to serve.”
The existence of the interagency group suggests that the administration’s pressure to deploy government power against Trump’s perceived enemies is broader and more systematic than previously thought. Inter-agency working groups in government typically create administration policies, share information, and agree on joint actions.
Trump and his allies have used the term “weaponization” to refer to his unproven claims that previous administration officials abused federal power to target him during his two impeachments, his criminal trials and the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
The interagency group’s mission “is basically to go after the ‘deep state,'” the source said. The term is used by Trump and his supporters to refer to the Obama and Biden administrations and the president’s perceived enemies from his first term.
Reuters could not determine to what extent the interagency group had implemented its plans. The news agency also could not establish Trump’s involvement in the group.
Biden, Comey, others reportedly discussed
Those discussed by the interagency group, the source said, included former FBI Director James Comey; Anthony Fauci, Trump’s chief medical adviser on the COVID-19 pandemic; and the former top US military commander who implemented orders making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for military members. The source said discussion of potential targets has extended beyond current and former government employees, including former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
A senior ODNI official disputed that account and said that “no individuals were targeted for retaliation.”
“The IWWG is only looking at available facts and evidence that may point to actions, reports, agencies, individuals, etc. that illegally arm the government to carry out political attacks,” the official said.
Lawyers for Comey and Hunter Biden did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and there was no immediate response from Fauci.
Reuters reviewed more than 20 government records and identified the names of 39 people involved in the interagency group. Five records relate to the interagency group, five relate to the weaponization working group that Bondi announced in February, and nine mention a small subgroup of staff. DOJ and several other agencies that are focusing on the attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The source said a key player in the interagency group is Justice Department lawyer Ed Martin, who in May failed to win Senate support to become U.S. attorney for Washington after lawmakers expressed concerns about his support for the Jan. 6 rioters. Martin, who also oversees Bondi DOJ The Arms Group is the department’s pardon attorney.
Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Others working in or with the group include COVID-19 vaccine mandate opponents and supporters of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, according to a Reuters review of their social media accounts and public statements.
A Justice Department spokesperson acknowledged that Bondi and Gabbard were ordered by Trump to review alleged acts of “weaponization” by the previous administration, but did not comment specifically on the activities of the Interagency Weaponization Working Group.
Reuters could not determine whether the group has the power to take any action or direct agencies to take action or whether its role is more advisory.
The Russia investigation and the January 6 trial were issues
The source said ODNI official Paul McNamara was a leading figure in the interagency group. McNamara is a retired US Marine officer and an ally of Gabbard. Two other sources said McNamara oversees Gabbard’s Directors Initiatives Group (DIG), as first reported by The Washington Post. Two documents show he is one of at least 10 ODNI officials associated with the interagency group.
McNamara did not respond to an email requesting comment.
Senators from both parties have already raised questions about DIG’s operations, with Republicans and Democrats approving a defense budget bill this month that would require Gabbard to disclose the group’s members, their roles and funding, and how they received security clearances.
The source told the group that ODNI, which oversees the 18-agency U.S. intelligence community, had begun using “technical tools” to search an unclassified communications network for evidence of the “deep state” and classified networks known as Secure Internet Protocol Router, or SIPRNET, and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, or JWICS. Had hoped to extend their search to.
The ODNI official described this as inaccurate and “not how the system operates.” Reuters could not obtain independent information about the tool.
A “big pillar he pushed” into the interagency group, the source said, was removing officials involved in investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and compiling a 2017 multi-agency U.S. intelligence assessment that determined Moscow attempted to influence Trump’s race.
Gabbard said in July that the DIG had found documents showing that former President Barack Obama had ordered intelligence agencies to prepare the 2017 assessment – allegations an Obama spokesman dismissed as “outlandish.”
The findings of the 2017 assessment were confirmed by a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report released in August 2020 and a review ordered earlier this year by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Another focus of the interagency group was retaliation for the prosecution of the January 6 rioters, the source said.
Bondi assigned the DOJ Weapons Working Group to review the J6 prosecutions. Some documents seen by Reuters show that a small sub-group of staffers from across the government are gathering on the topic. The Justice Department, in a statement to Reuters, denied that a separate January 6 group existed.
Other issues discussed included the Jeffrey Epstein files, the prosecution of Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro and the possibility of stripping security clearances from transgender US officials. Reuters could not independently confirm whether these were the subject of discussion.
The White House official said the Epstein files “are not part of the conversation.” The official also disputed Reuters’ characterization of what the working group has focused on.
The senior ODNI official also denied that the group had discussed the Epstein files, revoking security clearances for transgender officers or the cases of Bannon and Navarro.
Bannon did not respond to a request for comment. Navarro said his case is an example of the weaponization of Biden’s government.
Many of the people involved have been dedicated Trump supporters
Five documents belonging to the interagency group indicate the involvement of at least 39 current and former officials from across the government.
In a document written ahead of the interagency group’s spring gathering, ODNI official Carolyn Rocco said she hoped participants could help each other “understand the present implications of past weaponization.”
Reuters could not determine Rocco’s position at ODNI; The office makes public only the names of top officials.
The source identified him as one of two former US Air Force officers included in the group, who work for Gabbard and have been vocal opponents of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the military. Rocco signed an open letter on January 1, 2024, promising to seek courts-martial for senior military commanders who made the shots mandatory for service members.
Rocco did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Some of the people on the list, compiled by Reuters from documents reviewed by the interagency group, exaggerated Trump’s false election fraud claims.
According to two documents, one is former West Virginia Secretary of State Andrew McCoy “Mac” Warner. Now an attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Warner, while running for governor of West Virginia in 2023, alleged that the CIA “stole” the 2020 election from Trump.
Warner did not respond to a request for comment.
Other names found in the two documents include at least four White House officials, an aide to Vice President J.D. Vance and at least seven Justice Department officials, including former FBI agent Jared Wise, who was prosecuted for his involvement in the January 6 attack and is now in Bondi’s DOJ weaponization group.
Wise did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two documents show the involvement of two CIA officers but Reuters could not determine what role they may have played in the interagency group. The CIA is legally prohibited from conducting operations against Americans or inside the US except in very limited and specific circumstances.
The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Officials from other federal agencies that have some involvement in the interagency working group, including the FCC, FBI and IRS, did not respond to requests for comment. DOD did not respond to a request for comment.
A DHS spokesperson said the agency was working with other federal departments to “remediate the damage done by the prior administration.”