Bill Pulte will carry out mass firings on day one as Acting DNI.

Federal housing regulator Bill Pulte showed up to work a day early on Thursday and asked for a list of all employees as he decided whom to fire.

According to CNN, Pulte met with lawyers on Thursday evening.

Pulte officially begins his job as Acting DNI on Friday (today).

Last week, President Trump announced his nomination of US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton to serve as Director of National Intelligence.

However, Trump postponed Clayton’s confirmation until the Senators confirm his replacement for US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The delay in Clayton’s confirmation will allow Pulte to carry out the mass firings.

Politico reported:

Donald Trump’s new acting director of national intelligence is ordering cuts on his very first day on the job, as he moves aggressively to carry out the president’s mandate to shrink the country’s national intelligence apparatus.

Bill Pulte, who officially started at the intelligence coordination hub Friday, directed ODNI staff late Thursday to pull together a list of about 300 candidates to be fired from the National Counterterrorism Center in the coming weeks, per two people with knowledge of the plans, granted anonymity due to fear of persecution. The NCTC is “staffed by more than 1,000 personnel from across the IC, the Federal government, and Federal contractors,” according to ODNI’s website.

The move comes just days after Trump intervened to block a Senate push to speedily confirm his full-time DNI choice, Jay Clayton, on Wednesday, ensuring that Pulte would have a turn running the agency. Trump ordered Republicans not to move on Clayton’s nomination until his own replacement is successfully installed as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The choice of Pulte, a Trump ally who comes to ODNI with no prior national security or intelligence experience, has frozen the bipartisan push to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Democrats say they won’t vote for it with Pulte at the helm of the agency.

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