Rewriting the Rules, Rewriting Reality
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, demanded changes to a classified intelligence assessment because it contradicted a public statement made by President Trump.
Today’s News and Action | Curated by Engage for Democracy | Wednesday, May 28, 2025
🗽 Editor’s Note
Today’s edition is about truth — and what happens when those in power try to rewrite it.
We’ve spent the past week focused on H.R.1, the House-passed bill that would rewrite the structure of American government and dismantle key constitutional checks. That remains the single most urgent legislative threat we face right now. While we await the Senate’s next move, it’s critical to stay alert to the broader pattern: laws and facts are both being bent to concentrate power in the executive branch. If you missed it, please consider reading that analysis and taking action here.
That pattern was on full display in a new investigation by The New York Times and corroborated by the CBC. At its core is a stunning development: senior officials in the intelligence community were ordered to revise assessments that contradicted President Trump’s public narrative — not because the facts had changed, but because the truth had become politically inconvenient.
This is a moment to pay attention. To speak up. And to draw the connections between authoritarian tactics and the structural tools that enable them.
🧭 Executive Summary
The May 20 New York Times story reveals that senior aides to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard intervened to rewrite an intelligence report so it wouldn’t contradict President Trump’s public statements about Venezuela and a violent gang.
The intelligence community had concluded that Venezuela was not orchestrating the gang’s U.S. operations — a conclusion that undermined Trump’s justification for using the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants without due process. When the facts didn’t align with the narrative, political pressure was applied to change the facts.
This isn’t just a bureaucratic disagreement. It’s an alarming case of political power being used to distort intelligence, punish dissent, and manufacture justification for extreme executive action — a direct challenge to truth, accountability, and democratic governance.
🧾 What Happened
On March 14, President Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify the summary deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants accused of gang affiliation. His public claim: the Venezuelan regime was directing the gang Tren de Aragua to destabilize the United States.⁴
But an internal February 26 intelligence assessment had concluded otherwise — finding no credible evidence that Venezuela’s government directed or enabled the gang’s U.S. activities.¹ Despite that, the Trump administration issued the proclamation anyway.
After the contradiction came to light, Joe Kent — chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — sent emails instructing analysts to “rethink” the assessment and “do some rewriting… so this document is not used against the DNI or POTUS.”¹
A second corroborating report by CBC/Reuters revealed Kent argued it was “common sense” that Venezuela, as a hostile nation, would send gang members into the U.S. — even if no direct evidence supported that claim.² He pressed the intelligence community to realign its findings to fit that assumption.
The intelligence community reissued a revised report on April 7. While it included additional context, it still upheld the original conclusion: Venezuela was not directing the gang’s U.S. operations. Soon afterward, Director Gabbard fired the acting chair and vice-chair of the National Intelligence Council, accusing them of political bias.²
Senator Chris Van Hollen responded bluntly:
*“We want intelligence analysts to report the facts without fear or favor — not twist them for anyone’s political convenience. The entire intelligence system is corrupted when they are punished for telling the truth.”*³
⚖️ Why It Matters
Tulsi Gabbard’s office insisted on modifying the intelligence analysis, and pressured analysts to alter the report to meet President Trump’s public narrative. That’s not a reinterpretation of facts — it’s a violation of the core democratic principle that truth must guide policy, not the other way around.
When those who uphold the truth are fired, government becomes a tool of control rather than service. These are the tactics of authoritarian governance — and they are playing out right now, inside our most sensitive institutions.
History teaches us to take these signs seriously. Democracy doesn’t end all at once — it erodes, step by step, through silence, complicity, and public exhaustion. That’s why we speak up now.
✍️ Today’s Action
1) 📩 Email your Senators and Representative all at once in 3 easy steps:
Copy the message below
Click here to Go to Democracy.io
Paste the message (personalize if you’d like), fill in your info, and click Submit
📝 Message to Congress
Subject: Defend Truth in Intelligence – Demand Accountability for Politicized Interference
I’m writing today as a concerned constituent to urge you to speak out — and act — in defense of the integrity of our nation’s intelligence community. The American people depend on accurate, unvarnished intelligence assessments to inform sound policy and safeguard national security. When political leaders pressure analysts to alter findings for partisan gain, we all lose a layer of protection.
Recent reporting from The New York Times and CBC/Reuters reveals that senior officials in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, under Director Tulsi Gabbard’s leadership, pressured analysts to rewrite an assessment that contradicted public statements by President Trump. When the facts didn’t fit the narrative, political operatives reportedly demanded revisions — not because of new evidence, but to shield the administration from criticism. This violates a foundational principle: that truth must guide policy, not the other way around.
No matter who is in office, the politicization of intelligence poses a direct threat to our national security and democratic norms. If we allow pressure campaigns to distort intelligence, then policymaking becomes detached from reality — and dangerously susceptible to manipulation.
I urge you to:
Condemn efforts to politicize intelligence analysis, regardless of party.
Support a formal inquiry into whether ODNI actions violated protocols or undermined the objectivity of the intelligence community.
Affirm publicly that protecting the independence of analysts is a bipartisan imperative.
In moments like this, silence sends a message. I ask you to send a different one — one that says Congress will not tolerate efforts to rewrite reality for political convenience.
Thank you for your service and your attention to this critical matter.
2) 📲 Text RESIST to 50409 or message via facebook.com/resistbot (where you can send an email, text, or fax!)
Copy the message below (and personalize if you’d like)
Text RESIST to 50409 or Message Via facebook.com/resistbot
📝 Message (Shorter format for Text Messages)
I’m writing today to urge you to defend the independence of our intelligence community. Reports from The New York Times and CBC/Reuters reveal that senior officials in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence pressured analysts to alter their findings so they wouldn’t contradict public statements by President Trump. That’s not oversight — that’s manipulation.
Our national security depends on intelligence that reflects facts, not political convenience. When analysts are pressured to change conclusions — and then fired for telling the truth — Congress must step in. This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a test of whether facts still matter in our democracy.
Please speak out publicly, support an inquiry, and make clear that intelligence must remain free from political interference. Truth must guide policy — not the other way around.
3) ☎️ Call your Representatives in Congress
Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your member of Congress.
Use or modify the phone script below.
Phone Script for Calling Congress
Hello, my name is [First Name], and I’m a constituent calling from [City or ZIP Code].
I’m calling to urge [Senator/Representative] [Last Name] to publicly defend the independence of the intelligence community. According to recent reporting by The New York Times and CBC, senior officials in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence pressured analysts to revise a report to match President Trump’s public narrative — not because of new facts, but to avoid political fallout.
That’s a serious breach of democratic norms and a threat to national security. I’m asking [him/her/them] to support an inquiry, speak out against political interference in intelligence, and affirm that facts must drive policy — not politics.
Thank you for your time.
🔖Footnotes
Charlie Savage, Julian E. Barnes, Maggie Haberman, “Official Pushed to Rewrite Intelligence So It Could Not Be 'Used Against' Trump,” The New York Times, May 20, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/us/politics/gabbard-intelligence-venezuelans-tren-de-aragua-trump.html ↩ ↩2
“U.S. adviser reportedly pushed officials to rewrite intelligence so it would not be used against Trump,” CBC/Reuters, May 21, 2025. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-tren-de-aragua-venezuela-1.7539727 ↩ ↩2
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Instagram, May 21, 2025.
⁴ States United Democracy Center, “Sharing the Facts About the Alien Enemies Act,” originally published March 17, 2025; updated May 1, 2025. https://statesunited.org/resources/facts-about-alien-enemies-act/
Engage For Democracy editions are curated through close analysis of primary legislative documents and expert sources, with research and editorial support from OpenAI’s ChatGPT. All findings are independently reviewed and documented with verifiable citations. Engage For Democracy is a nonpartisan civic education project committed to constitutional accountability, the rule of law, and democratic norms. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, any inadvertent errors are mine alone.
📣 That’s today’s edition. We’ll be back with our next update soon.
Until then:
🕵️♂️ When intelligence is rewritten to protect power, it’s not just the truth at risk—it’s the foundation of accountable government.
📢 Share widely—because democratic erosion often begins behind closed doors.
⚖️ Congress has a duty to uphold facts, not narratives. Public pressure helps them remember it.
💪 With vigilance, integrity, and resolve,
Engage For Democracy