Intelligence on CrossGov.com

FBI Arrests a CIA Contractor With Top Secret Clearance on Charges of Leaking Classified Reports to a Journalist

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The FBI arrested a CIA contractor on October 23, 2026, on a charge that he passed classified national defense information to a journalist he was dating. The Justice Department named him as Ian A. Brinksman, 42, of Washington, DC, and charged him by criminal complaint with unlawfully transmitting national defense information, an Espionage Act offense.

The case started inside the agency. CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the FBI made the arrest “following a referral from the Agency.” The FBI’s Chicago Field Office led the investigation, with help from the Washington Field Office. Brinksman held a Top Secret clearance with access to sensitive compartmented information. He had worked since 2020 for a government agency in the Eastern District of Virginia and, from 2022, as a systems integration developer for a contractor to that agency.

US Government News Digest for October 26 2026

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Eight days before the midterms, Washington spent Monday arguing about who gets the last word. The Justice Department is in federal court in Alaska and California trying to shape how ballots are handled and results certified. A judge in Manhattan told the same department it had no right to fire a career prosecutor the way it did. Two senators say the administration is sitting on a surveillance court ruling the law says it should have published six weeks ago.

FBI Seizes Chinese Contractor's Hacking Tools Used Against US Agencies as CISA's Patch Deadline Passes

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The FBI has seized seven internet domains used to run two hacking tools, MicroScan and FishHub, operated by Integrity Technology Group, a Beijing company with Chinese government contracts. US and allied agencies tie the company to the hacking group known as Flax Typhoon. A joint advisory from CISA, the FBI and the NSA, with Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and Britain, lists victims including US government agencies, manufacturers, hospitals, IT firms, law enforcement, schools and religious groups.

Trump Tells Ukraine to Get a New Leader and Declares an Energy Ceasefire Kyiv Says It Wasn't Told About

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On October 11 the President posted on Truth Social: “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine… Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!”

Volodymyr Zelensky said the ceasefire “was news for me.” A senior Ukrainian official said: “Nobody has heard [of the ceasefire].” Overnight, Russia struck the Kharkiv power plant.

ODNI Cut to About Half Its Size as Jay Clayton Becomes the Third Intelligence Chief in a Year

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence had about 2,000 staff in January 2025. After five rounds of layoffs and reassignments, it has “little more than half” that, according to officials quoted by Federal News Network in July 2026. Senator Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, has proposed capping it at 650.

ODNI also has its third leader in a year. Jay Clayton, the former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was confirmed as director of national intelligence on July 28 by 51 to 47 and sworn in on August 3. On October 4 the President named him to lead a new federal AI task force as well.

FISA Section 702 Lapsed in June, but Collection Runs to March 2027 Under Court-Approved Certifications

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act expired at midnight on June 12, 2026. Congress had extended it twice in short bursts that spring and then failed to agree on a longer renewal. It was the first time the program’s legal authority had lapsed since it was created in 2008.

The surveillance hasn’t stopped. In March 2026 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved a new set of yearly certifications, which tell the government what categories of foreign intelligence it may collect. Under the statute, collection continues under approved certifications until they expire, on March 17, 2027.

Five Eyes Under Strain: Allies Limit Intelligence Sharing With Washington Case by Case

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The UKUSA agreement was signed in March 1946, between Britain and the United States. Canada joined in 1948, Australia and New Zealand in 1956. For most of the eighty years since, the arrangement now called Five Eyes has been the closest intelligence partnership between sovereign states anywhere. Raw signals intelligence moves between the five almost as if they were one service.

That still mostly holds. What changed in 2025 is the edges. Several allies now decide case by case what they hand to Washington, and Washington has started deciding case by case what it hands back.