Trump’s pick to lead US intel community did not have a security clearance before he was tapped for the job, sources say

By Zachary Cohen, Natasha Bertrand, Kristen Holmes, CNN

(CNN) — Before he was announced as President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US intelligence community, Bill Pulte did not have a security clearance granting him access to highly-classified information – meaning he lacked what has long been considered a basic prerequisite for the job he will soon occupy, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

On Thursday, days after Trump’s announcement that Pulte would serve as acting director of national intelligence, the office he is expected to lead – at least temporarily – initiated the vetting process for his security clearance by requesting a background investigation, one of the sources told CNN.

Pulte — a wealthy businessman who was confirmed as Federal Housing Finance Agency director last year— already appeared to be an unusual choice for acting DNI given his lack of demonstrated experience in national security matters. A staunch Trump loyalist, Pulte played an extraordinary role in pushing the Justice Department to pursue some of its most eye-popping cases against the president’s personal foes.

Evidence that Pulte did not have access to classified material before he was announced as Trump’s top intelligence official this week underscores just how atypical his credentials are compared to nearly every other DNI that came before him.

“The director of national intelligence has access to all of our most classified intelligence,” Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, told CNN.

There is no evidence that Pulte “would respect those classifications,” Warner said.

Sources told CNN there is no evidence that Pulte previously maintained even the lowest form of security clearance before he was tapped as acting DNI.

There are different levels of clearance – ranging from confidential to Top Secret. The most sensitive materials are classified beyond Top Secret – in what are known as compartmentalized access programs that typically require a strict “need-to-know” and additional background screenings.

Pulte also had not been previously vetted for potential security vulnerabilities, a process typically required to obtain a higher-level security clearance, and, critically, for those serving in senior intelligence community roles like acting DNI, according to two of the sources.

“None,” one of the sources said about whether Pulte had gone through any vetting for a security clearance prior to Trump’s announcement, adding that Thursday’s request for a background investigation was the first step in that process.

It is unclear if Pulte has committed to also taking a polygraph test. A polygraph is a stringent requirement for access to the US intelligence community’s classified network, multiple sources previously told CNN, but are not always mandatory for high-ranking, presidential-appointees picked to lead those agencies.

Still, Trump is widely expected to grant Pulte access to classified information before he formally steps into the acting DNI role next month, the sources said, and could do so in a way that would effectively allow him to bypass those vetting requirements, at least in the short term.

Trump says he’s not going to be permanent

Trump appeared to dismiss bipartisan concerns about Pulte’s lack of national security experience when asked if he was the right person for the job on Thursday.

“I wasn’t greatly experienced in national security, and I think I’ve done a really great job with it,” Trump told reporters when asked about Pulte’s qualifications for the role. “He’s very smart. He’s a person who’s got high integrity. He’s done a phenomenal job … He may find out some things about the rigged elections.”

There are also concerns that Pulte, who has played a key role in the president’s retribution campaign, could support the president in his efforts to perpetuate baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

The current director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was notably on the scene when FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Fulton County elections office in Georgia in January.

Trump emphasized Thursday that Pulte would only be in the role temporarily. “It’s an acting position, it’s not a permanent – he’s not going to be permanent.”

Early Friday morning, Senate Democrats voted to block consideration of a bill to reauthorize the warrantless surveillance law known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after saying they would not support it over Pulte’s appointment. Seven Senate Republicans voted with the Democrats.

An administration official said Pulte won’t start in the role until next month when Gabbard formally leaves the role.

It is not clear what, if any experience Pulte has dealing with classified information or engaging with the intelligence community to date – though his prior lack of a security clearance suggests it would have been limited at best.

Officials who have never had access to classified information before typically would not be granted an interim clearance without at least a review of a government form documenting personal information and some other basic information, a source familiar with the process previously told CNN.

Someone who answered a phone number associated with Pulte hung up when CNN called asking for Pulte. The person did not respond to a text message requesting comment.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency did not provide CNN with comment for this story despite multiple requests. CNN has asked the White House and ODNI for comment.

Pulte’s lack of a security clearance prior to being named to the role underlines the unconventional nature of his appointment to what is an incredibly sensitive role at the top of the US intelligence community with critics concerned Trump have placed him in the role to further the president’s retribution agenda.

Multiple sources familiar with the decision told CNN that the rationale for the pick was simple: Trump liked what he saw from Pulte and believed he could potentially replicate it at DNI.

Pulte’s appointment sparked shock among national security professionals and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The role, created after 9/11, oversees the 18 agencies that make up the intelligence community and was designed to avoid another catastrophic intelligence failure in which spy agencies don’t share information with each other.

Lawmakers on both sides concerned

Lawmakers have already been raising concerns about what Pulte could do with access to the nation’s most closely-guarded secrets.

“We don’t need a weaponized DNI. We need professionals there,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said when asked about Pulte’s appointment. “I’ve just heard about it. I’ll try and get more information about the current state of their thinking about that position.”

“We have no idea whether (Pulte) even has a security clearance,” Warner told CNN.

Even so, the Senate Intelligence Committee has been attempting to find out what kind of security clearance, if any, Pulte has, but so far it has not been successful, one source told CNN.

At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Warner asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent if Pulte had a security clearance. Bessent said he didn’t know.

All three sources also told CNN that there is no evidence Pulte currently has a security clearance or previously had access to classified information. But those sources also acknowledged it is possible he may have been granted one without going through expedited vetting.

Trump has long complained about the security clearance process, and during his first term, he ordered clearances for more than two dozen people, including his own son-in-law Jared Kushner and his daughter Ivanka, who had struggled to complete the security clearance process, according to congressional testimony.

But even so, Pulte’s case is unique given the responsibilities of an acting DNI and what sources described as Trump’s reasoning for choosing him for the job.

At the beginning of his second term, Trump granted temporary, six-month security clearances to incoming White House officials who had not completed the typical vetting process, blaming a backlog of background checks that he helped cause.

Trump issued an executive order that immediately gave high-level clearances called TS/SCI to incoming officials, including some who have never been vetted for potential security vulnerabilities, CNN previously reported.

It was a move national security lawyers inside and outside the government said at the time was unusual, if not unprecedented.

At the time, one former US official who worked on clearance issues in the Biden and first Trump administrations raised concerns that foreign intelligence partners, on which the US relies for much of its intelligence work, will curtail what they share with the US, out of fear that their sources may be put in danger.

“They will start restricting their intelligence,” the official said. “If someone on the other end here has not been vetted, why would they share that?”

Allowing Pulte to similarly bypass those requirements would likely be even more alarming considering his new job overseeing the entire US intelligence community and the level of access to classified information that comes with it.

Beth Sanner, a former senior intelligence official, said she didn’t expect Pulte’s appointment to improve intelligence sharing between agencies.

“To me, Pulte is a divisive figure. CIA might not want to share information with somebody that has no background (in intelligence),” Sanner told CNN’s Brianna Keilar.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Sean Lyngaas and Jeremy Herb contributed reporting.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.