Trump Denies Report That He's Planning to Restructure the CIA

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that president-elect Donald Trump was apparently working with advisors to restructure the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), according to a source close to the transition.

In order to revamp the ODNI—the head US intelligence office that focuses on how the different spy agencies coordinate—Trump supposedly wanted to cut down jobs at the CIA headquarters in Virginia and send more agents out into the field. The president-elect was said to be working with his new national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and Mike Pompeo, who he tapped as incoming CIA director, on the plan.

"The view from the Trump team is the intelligence world has become completely politicized," the source told the Journal. "The focus will be on restructuring the agencies and how they interact."

Trump has continually mocked and criticized the US intelligence community in response to the CIA, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security's assessments that Russia was behind the hacks that interfered with the US election and attempted to sway it in Trump's favor.

Following the Journal's report, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer immediately refuted the claim, telling Politico, "There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure… It is 100 percent false."

Trump also appeared to respond to the report on Twitter, reminding the American public that he is actually "a big fan" of the intelligence community.

The CIA, Flynn, and Pompeo have yet to comment on the alleged plans to restructure. Trump is set to receive a full report on the election hacks from the CIA, FBI, and Director of National Intelligence on Friday.

This post has been updated to include Sean Spicer's comments.