EXCLUSIVE: Declassified ODNI emails debunk NY Times hit piece on NCTC nominee Joe Kent

The New York Times launched a hit piece on Joe Kent, Trump's nominee for the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), claiming that he's unsuited to the job because he had pushed for intelligence to be rewritten in order that it would not be "used against" President Donald Trump.

New emails however, obtained by The Post Millennial and declassified by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard, show that Kent was providing feedback to a draft NIC assessment, asking for additional context. He was also questioning the analysis presented, saying essentially that the analysts were looking for a "smoking gun" rather than nuanced connections.

That report was about the Venezuelan government's relationship to the Tren de Aragua gang. The Trump administration engaged the Alien Enemies Act in March to deport Tren de Aragua gang members based on the idea that the government of Venezuela has been party to the invasion of the US by that gang. 

Following a March article in The New York Times that alleged there was no connection at all between the Maduro regime and Tren de Aragua, Kent contacted National Intelligence Council (NIC) Chair Mike Collins, saying that it was essential to "rethink the IC's TDA assessment. I would like to understand how any IC element arrived at the conclusion that the Venezuelan government doesn't support and did not orchestrate TDA operating in the U.S."

"Flooding the nation with 'migrants,'" Kent continued in the email to Collins, "and especially 'migrants' who are part of a violent criminal gang is the action of a hostile nation, even if the gov of Venezuela isn't specifically tasking or enabling TDA's operations."

"I think we let a quest for a line and block organizational showing direct links between the Venezuelan gov and TDA obstruct basic common sense." He asked for a new assessment by the end of that week.

A report out from the FBI in April suggested that the Venezuelan government "likely facilitated" the illegal migration of Tren de Aragua gang members to the US as a way to undermine America and advance the Maduro agenda.

The NIC drafted a report as well which appeared to contradict those FBI claims, saying that there were some Venezuelan officials who have "facilitated" the criminal efforts of Tren de Aragua in the US for the purpose of advancing "what they see as the Maduro regime's goal of destabilizing governments and undermining public safety."

It went on to say, however, "While Venezuela's permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States." 

The IC report detailed that this assessment was based on the actions of Venezuelan law enforcement officials who see the gang as a threat as well as the decentralized leadership structure of the gang itself. "Furthermore," it continued, "most of the IC judges that intelligence indicating that regime leaders are directing or enabling TDA migration to the United States is not credible and would need [redacted] reporting [redacted] corroborated [redacted]."

That report was the subject of email discussions within the Office of the DNI. Emails from Joe Kent to Collins and Vice Chair Maria Langan-Riekhof were leaked to The New York Times, which then claimed that the IC assessment "contradicted a presidential proclamation" and that Kent "pushed for changes to the new analysis" for the purpose of protecting the president and the ODNI.

"We need to do some rewriting" the Times quoted the leaked emails, "so this document is not used against DNI or POTUS." The Times had previously reported that Kent asked analysts to redo their assessment on the relationship between Tren de Aragua and Venezuela. 

The article cites emails in an attempt to show that Kent, who is chief of staff to DNI Tulsi Gabbard, "ordered analysts to edit an assessment with the hope of insulating President Trump and Ms. Gabbard from being attacked for the administration’s claim that Venezuela’s government controls a criminal gang."

New emails show that far from demanding changes to protect the president's agenda, the ask from Kent was for further context to be provided in the analysis. 

"The document leads with weak IC speak that basically says we can't prove via smoking gun intel that the Ven gov is directing TDA, making it sound like the Ven gov has nothing to do with TDA." He then instructs Collins and Langan-Riekhof to move a paragraph from later in the document to the top.

That section reads: "Tren de Aragua (TDA) is a Venezuelan transnational gang that has spread to at least seven South America and Caribbean countries, operating in loosely-organized cells of localized, individual criminal networks. TDA leaders have historically been located in Venezuela and probably communicate to varying degrees with some international TDA cells and coordinate amongst themselves."

"If you replace TDA with Al-Qaeda and Venezuela with Afghanistan, the above paragraph is basically the rationale behind our invasion of Afghanistan and targeting of the Taliban post 9/11," Kent wrote. "Let's just come out and say TDA leaders are given sanctuary in Venezuela as their gang members commit horrendous crimes in America. Then we can provide the context about our exact knowledge of the relationship between TDA and the Ven gov. I think this should be put up front as it speaks to the nature of TDA, they are not just a group of migrants forming a gang in America, they are transnational and supported to some degree by a government that is hostile to us."

Kent also tells them "Another major issue I have with the analysis in this piece is its lack of context about the status of our border and immigration policy over the last 4 years. The piece says that the IC has not seen the Ven gov help TDA transport its members to the US and cites a lack of this support as an indicator that the Ven gov is not cooperating with TDA."

The analysis as presented, Kent said, "would make sense if the Biden administration had not publicly opened the border, used CBP as a travel service for illegals via the CBP 1 app and funded numerous NGOs via the UN that provided all the logistical support required to get from Ven to the US border. This cannot be overlooked, the Biden admin took away the need for any hostile gov to provide logistics for the migrants/terrorists/operatives they wanted to flood our nation with. This also must be noted in any analysis. TDA didn't need logistical support from the Ven gov because Biden provided it for them."

Kent acknowledged that this could be viewed "as political," but said "it is not, it's a simple verifiable reality that we cannot overlook."

In discussing the relationship between Tren de Aragua and Venezuela on April 4, a few days ahead of the report's release, Collins suggested adding this context: "The IC also recognizes the extent of any regime support for such migration would probably vary with changes in the extent of difficulties migrants face entering the United States on their own." This followed the assertion that "The IC has not observed the regime directing TDA to push migrants to the United States, which probably would require extensive coordination, and funding between regime entities and TDA leaders that we would collect."

Collins has been removed from his position and is now under investigation for illegally leaking classified information.  
 

Joe Kent Emails re TDA, Maduro regime by Hannah Nightingale on Scribd

Joe Kent Emails re TDA, Venezuela 2 by The Post Millennial on Scribd