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Updated on: April 4, 2025 / 12:36 AM EDT / CBS News
Gen. Timothy Haugh, the head of both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, has been fired by the Trump administration, the top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees confirmed late Thursday night, along with a source familiar with the matter.
Haugh’s removal from the spy agencies was disclosed by Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Lt. Gen. William Hartman, the current Cyber Command deputy director, will serve as acting NSA director, the source told CBS News.
When reached by CBS News, a spokesperson for the NSA had no comment. The White House and the office of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
News of the firing was first reported by the Washington Post. No further details were immediately available.
Himes said in a statement he was “deeply disturbed” by the decision.
“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,” Himes said.
National Security Agency Director Timothy Haugh testifies during a Senate Committee on Intelligence hearing “to examine worldwide threats,” in Washington, D.C., on March 25, 2025. Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
Haugh had been NSA director for just over a year. He was first nominated to the post by former President Joe Biden in May 2023, but his Senate confirmation was delayed until December 2023 because of Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s months-long hold on military nominations protesting a Pentagon policy on reimbursing travel expenses for service members who seek reproductive health care.
Haugh had met last month with billionaire Elon Musk, head of the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has been tasked by President Trump with slashing the size of the federal workforce.
“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?” said Warner in a statement on Haugh’s firing, referencing last year’s China-linked hack of U.S. telecom companies.
Haugh testified on Capitol Hill last week about the Signal leak in which a journalist for The Atlantic had been added to a group chat with high-ranking members of the Trump administration, including Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, regarding an operation to bomb Houthi targets. Haugh was not on the chat.
The NSA director reports to the DNI.
Warner said it was “astonishing” that Mr. Trump “would fire the nonpartisan, experienced leader of the National Security Agency while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on a commercial messaging app – even as he apparently takes staffing direction on national security from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office,” a reference to right-wing personality Laura Loomer.
Earlier Thursday CBS News learned that at least six staffers with the National Security Council had been fired following a visit by Loomer to the Oval Office.
Andres Triay, Robert Costa and Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.
Faris TanyosFaris Tanyos is a news editor for CBSNews.com, where he writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He previously worked as a digital news producer at several local news stations up and down the West Coast.
