Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that intelligence officials should resist sharing information with acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte, accusing President Donald Trump's administration of carrying out a partisan takeover of the nation's intelligence apparatus.

Speaking on the "Defending Democracy with Marc Elias" podcast, Clinton said Americans "should definitely be worried about everything" surrounding Pulte's appointment to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

"We should definitely be worried about everything. This is a naked partisan takeover of the director of national intelligence, which was formed following 9/11 to better try to coordinate the various intelligence agencies," Clinton said.

Clinton pointed to the creation of the DNI position following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying lawmakers established the office to improve coordination among the nation's intelligence agencies after failures leading up to the attacks.

"Because we missed a lot of signals that we should have paid attention to leading up to 9/11, and it was thought in this legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security and created the DNI that this would be a better coordinating mechanism," she said.

While acknowledging what she described as structural shortcomings within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Clinton emphasized the breadth of the office's authority over classified intelligence.

"I think there's a lot of problems with it, but it is at the hub of all of our intelligence. The DNI has access to everything, everything that they want to see," she said.

Clinton then said she hoped intelligence officials would limit Pulte's access to information.

"I mean, I hope there are career and even political appointees, in various of the agencies, that are slow-walking or refusing to share information with Pulte," she said.

President Donald Trump appointed Pulte, who previously served as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director of national intelligence last month following the departure of Tulsi Gabbard.

Pulte remains head of the FHFA while temporarily overseeing the U.S. intelligence community, an arrangement that has drawn criticism because he has no prior intelligence or national security experience.

Since taking over the intelligence post, Pulte has begun overseeing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as part of the administration's broader effort to reduce the federal workforce and reshape executive branch agencies.

Democrats have sharply criticized the appointment, with much of the criticism centers on Pulte's actions while leading the FHFA, where he referred several prominent Trump critics, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook, for alleged mortgage fraud.

Pulte has rejected accusations that those referrals were politically motivated.

Earlier this week, Pulte renewed allegations against Cook after the Supreme Court declined to immediately allow the Trump administration to remove her from the Federal Reserve Board while litigation over her dismissal continues, keeping the dispute in the national spotlight.