As the United States faces possible retaliatory attacks from Iran, a “brain drain” in top Justice Department and FBI national security and counterterrorism units could reduce their ability to prevent potential terror and cyberattacks from Tehran, according to six former senior DOJ and FBI officials.
Staff levels in the DOJ National Security Division’s Law and Policy section have dropped by as much as two-thirds, two former DOJ officials said. Its counterintelligence and export control section — which tracks foreign espionage in the U.S. by Iran and other foreign rivals — has lost about a third of its workforce, the former DOJ officials said.
A former senior FBI official said he was aware of at least 20 national security personnel who had left the bureau in the last three months.
“The senior ranks of the FBI and DOJ’s national security teams have been decimated,” a former senior DOJ official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said through text message. “As a result, the FBI and Justice Department are completely unprepared to respond to a crisis, including the fallout from the current conflict in the Middle East.”