The CIA is conducting an internal formal review to assess any potential damage caused by an unclassified email sent to the White House that discussed possible layoffs, using names and initials that had the potential to expose undercover officers, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Monday.
The email, sent in early February, was part of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plan to cut the workforce and spending of the federal government.
The Trump administration’s continuous efforts to audit federal organizations threaten to jeopardize the government’s most sensitive work, CNN reported, citing current and former US officials familiar with internal deliberations.
Earlier this month, in an effort to comply with Trump’s executive order aiming to reduce the federal workforce, the CIA sent an email listing all employees who had been with the agency for two years or less – including officers preparing for undercover operations – over an unclassified email server.
Now, the agency is unsure if several employees listed in the email should be reassigned, sources said to CNN, as the risk that their identity has been compromised and exposed to foreign government hackers may be too high.
“Your predecessor was in that position, as were the five officers before them. Now the host country and adversaries know this person going to this position in the embassy is agency,” said one former CIA officer to CNN, speaking hypothetically.
“They now assume the predecessors were the same [and] work backward and find out their collective footprint. The position is now burned," the former CIA officer added in the report.
US tells federal agencies they can ignore Musk ultimatum
The newest phase of Musk’s DOGE plan involves the requirement of federal employees to report what they have done in the past week, stating that failure to respond would be taken as a resignation.
Recently, the US Office of Personnel Management told HR officials that employees were not obliged to respond to the email, according to a Reuters report citing the Justice Department's internal communication.