Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

7. Intelligence Community · Notable

Fire or prosecute suspected leakers and strip their pensions

Not started

214 7. Intelligence Community

“The ODNI and CIA should fire or refer for prosecution any employee who is suspected of leaking information, and penalties should include the removal of pension benefits for those who are found guilty.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    No allowlisted record of the ODNI or the CIA firing or referring for prosecution any of its own employees for leaking, and none of pension benefits being removed from anyone convicted. The Justice Department has prosecuted clearance holders for leaking in the window — a former Army employee was arrested and indicted on 2026-04-08 for transmitting classified national defense information to a journalist, and the FBI's counterintelligence division called the case "a stark warning to all current and former clearance holders" — but the defendant supported an Army unit, not the ODNI or the CIA, and the release says nothing about pensions.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • The Justice Department’s press-release API (justice.gov) was searched on the titles “classified”, “leak”, “Espionage Act”, “unauthorized disclosure”, “national defense information”, “Ratcliffe” and “Gabbard” across all pages in the window. The in-window unauthorized disclosure and espionage prosecutions are: 2025-03-20 and 2025-06-24 (DOD civilians), 2025-03-26 (former federal employee), 2025-04-23 (a former CIA official, but for acting as a foreign agent, a case charged before the window), 2025-05-29 and 2026-08-27 (a US government employee attempting to give classified information to a foreign government), 2025-07-10 (Air Force), 2025-08-06 (active-duty soldier), 2025-11-13 and 2026-02-11 (retired Army colonel), 2026-01-22 (Maryland man), 2026-04-08 (Army employee, leak to a journalist), 2026-04-23 (soldier), and 2026-06-26, John R. Bolton II, a former National Security Advisor, pleading guilty to violating the Espionage Act (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-us-national-security-advisor-john-r-bolton-ii-pleads-guilty-violating-espionage-act). None is an ODNI or CIA employee.
  • The pension-forfeiture half would need legislation or an OPM action under 5 U.S.C. § 8312; nothing was found in bills in Congress, public laws, or the Federal Register.
  • This ask is also covered by a single negative search of the IC personnel-discipline and public-presence asks on pp. 213-214.
Action
eliminate
Object
ODNI and CIA employees suspected of leaking information
ID
563