- Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies are looking for disgruntled former or current federal workers as possible sources, according to CNN. The effort comes as the Trump administration continues with its plans for mass layoffs, some of which it has tried to quickly reverse after discovering workers’ national security roles and knowledge of secret information.
Foreign adversaries like China and Russia are trying to recruit federal employees who are angry about the Trump administration’s mass layoffs as possible intelligence sources, according to CNN.
In particular, foreign intel agencies are looking for recently fired workers with security clearances as well as current probationary staff at risk of being laid off with information about critical infrastructure and key details about the federal bureaucracy, sources told the network.
The efforts include the creation of recruitment websites and aggressive outreach to federal employees on social media, the report added, with one source saying adversaries see them as especially vulnerable now as they are “out of a job, bitter about being fired, etc.”
“It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see that these cast aside federal workers with a wealth of institutional knowledge represent staggeringly attractive targets to the intelligence services of our competitors and adversaries,” another source told CNN.
CNN also cited a document from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that said the intelligence community has “high confidence” foreign adversaries are trying to “capitalize” on the Trump administration’s layoff plans by seeking out federal workers.
A spokesman for NCIS, which coordinates counterintelligence activities across the Navy Department, declined to comment on or confirm the existence of any investigations or operations.
But he told Fortune that service members and civilian personnel with security clearances are indeed at a higher risk of being targeted by foreign intelligence agencies, adding that NCIS routinely briefs commands across the department on such threats.
The spokesman also said NCIS is investigating the unauthorized disclosure of information originally reported by CNN.
The CIA declined to comment. The White House and the Russian embassy didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“China has always been committed to developing relations with the United States on the basis of mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs,” a spokesperson for the embassy said. “We oppose groundless speculation on China without factual basis.”
The Department of Government Efficiency has spearheaded a wave of layoffs, especially of federal workers still in their probationary periods, across a range of agencies.
But some workers with critical national security duties have already been caught up in the culling. For example, recent Energy Department layoffs included specialists at the National Nuclear Safety Administration who are responsible for designing and maintaining US nuclear weapons.
Because the laid-off staff hold national security secrets, the agency quickly reversed the decision and sought to recall the workers. But some may be gone for good.
“These people are likely never going to come back and work for the government,” Jill Hruby, who served as the NNSA administrator during the Biden administration, told Bloomberg last month. “We’ve had a very active program requiring an increase to our staff so the indiscriminate layoffs of people will be really difficult for the coming years.”
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has announced plans to cut 5,400 as part of an initial phase of reductions, and the CIA is planning an unspecified number of layoffs, though it reportedly would be the largest in nearly 50 years.
President Donald Trump has signaled that the Defense Department is especially ripe for budget cuts, claiming last month that there’s “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse.”
Weeks later Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the military services to identify $50 billion, or about 8% of the Pentagon’s budget, that could be cut next year.
