The Trump administration fired National Security Agency Director Gen. Timothy Haugh and civilian Deputy Director Wendy Noble, a senior defense official confirmed to Fox News.
The reasons for the firing remain unclear as of early Friday. They were first reported by The Washington Post on Thursday.
Haugh also served as commander of the U.S. Cyber Command – a position from which he was also dismissed. Noble was reassigned to serve in the office of the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, according to the Post.
Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes, top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees, reacted to the alleged firings late Thursday night.
Himes, a ranking member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said he is ‘deeply disturbed’ by Haugh’s dismissal.
‘I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security first—I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this Administration,’ he said in a statement, adding an ‘immediate explanation’ is needed for this decision.
Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, described Haugh’s firing as ‘astonishing’ in a statement.
‘General Haugh has served our country in uniform, with honor and distinction, for more than 30 years. At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyber threats, as the Salt Typhoon cyberattack from China has so clearly underscored, how does firing him make Americans any safer?’ Warner said.
The senator described Haugh as a ‘nonpartisan, experienced leader’ and said it is astonishing that President Donald Trump would fire him before holding ‘any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on a commercial messaging app.’
He continued, ‘even as he apparently takes staffing direction on national security from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office.’
Warner is appearing to refer to Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who reportedly presented Trump with a list of disloyal National Security Counsel staff members who should be fired.
An undisclosed number of NSC employees were dismissed on Thursday, but Trump has said Loomer was not involved in those firings.
Fox News Digital reached out to the NSA for comment but was referred to the Office of the Secretary of Defense.