By Norm Eisen and Riley Pynnonen
Late last month, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard announced her departure. Trump’s choice of replacement? William J. Pulte, a loyalist whose leading qualification appears to be his appetite to use power for political retribution. He has no intelligence background, no national security expertise, and is utterly unfit to serve as Acting DNI.
Fortunately, there is something that can be done about it. Senators should refuse to move Section 702 surveillance reauthorization which could be abused by Pulte– and they are doing just that.
On Tuesday morning, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was appointing Pulte, the current director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and Chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to serve as Acting DNI. Pulte’s appointment is troubling for two reasons.
First, the appointment is inconsistent with congressional intent. The Director of National Intelligence is statutorily required to “have extensive national security expertise.” Pulte has zilch, and appointing him in an “Acting” role should not allow him to skirt this requirement. Ludicrously, Trump cited Pulte’s work on things like “safety and soundness of the Markets” in explaining the housing director’s qualifications for a top national security role. That flies in the face of the statute.
There’s a second legal problem with his appointment as well. When Congress created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as part of the post-9/11 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, it made clear that during the vacancy in the position of DNI, the principal deputy director would step in. Bypassing congressional intent belies the very goal of having a DNI, or one person who coordinates our national security and counter-intelligence response in the face of grave external threats.
But Pulte’s unfitness runs much deeper than those legal issues. He is best known for weaponizing his position at the FHFA to harass and persecute the president’s perceived enemies. He fired oversight boards — consolidating his own power —and then fired the ethics officials who could help hold him accountable. As Acting DNI, Pulte would be in charge of our county’s most sensitive information. His ability to wage war on the President’s “enemies” and ordinary citizens whose only crime is having a differing opinion would be nearly unchecked.
The DNI oversees a vast network of relationships domestically and internationally, integrating foreign, domestic, and military intelligence. Former DNIs were appointed based on their experience as high-level international representatives, directors and deputy directors of various intelligence agencies under the umbrella of Intelligence Community, and military professionals who achieved the ranks of admiral and lieutenant general.
Pulte has no history in the intelligence community nor in government service at all prior to March 2025. His degree in broadcast journalism led him to running his own private equity fund and later a nonprofit that tore down blighted houses. Much like Trump and his sons, he secured his highest profile role through family connections. Pulte sat on the board of a company his grandpa founded. In his year and a half in government service he has had no applicable “national security” experience. The qualities Trump lauded him for are not borne out in the record of his time in charge at FHFA.
Pulte abused his power at FHFA to lead incessant witch hunts for the president’s enemies. He used his position to spin up investigations of mortgage fraud including dubious claims of wrongdoing by the president’s perceived political adversaries. Many of these “investigations” have so little basis in reality they fail to make it to a courtroom. When Pulte’s farcical claims have reached legal proceedings, they have been smacked down again and again.
In fact, the Government Accountability Office opened an investigation into his actions regarding improper access and use of privileged documents to pursue these un-American cases. A pending investigation into improper handling of sensitive information should be automatically disqualifying for this type of role, and it should raise alarm bells. In his new role as DNI, he would have access to virtually all information gathered across the entire network of intelligence agencies. He’s already demonstrated that he’s willing to abuse his power to dig up mortgage documents and other files to go after Trump’s perceived enemies. What will he do with vast intelligence resources?
The crusades Pulte undertook at the FHFA, with meager investigatory powers and purview, will pale in comparison to what he could accomplish at ODNI.
Among the most powerful tools at his disposal? Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That section provides the government with wide latitude to conduct surveillance of foreign persons located outside the United States. Notwithstanding purported limits on the use of Section 702 to target U.S. persons, the Intelligence Community has been able to use so-called “backdoor searches” to collect information on U.S. citizens. Read in conjunction with the president’s widespread direction to seek out so-called “domestic terrorists” through National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-7), Bill Pulte would be in a position to supercharge his baseless attacks on Presidential foes.
How Pulte has run the FHFA should alarm everyone. What Pulte might do as DNI goes far beyond alarming. If information at that agency is not overseen by a responsible steward, it could endanger lives, national security, and weaponize the government in ways never before seen. There is something we can, and must, do to prevent this. The Senate should refuse to advance the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act until Pulte’s appointment to the DNI is withdrawn.
Reportedly, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark Warner is starting that process. He has made clear that he does not see sufficient Democratic support to move forward on Section 702 if Pulte is not removed. Senators of good faith in both parties should join Senator Warner in insisting that this dangerous and unqualified appointee be removed immediately.
Riley Pynnonen is a program assistant at Democracy Defenders Action. Norm Eisen is the co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action and Democracy Defenders Fund, which have litigated or filed complaints on behalf of individuals whom Bill Pulte has investigated.
First paragraph, second sentence reads: "He has no intelligence background, no national security expertise, and is utterly unfit to serve as Acting DNI."
Should read: "He has no intelligence." He's an overweight nepo baby, just like his cult leader.
Thank you for this article. I wrote to my Senators telling them not to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act until Pulte’s appointment to the DNI is withdrawn.