The CIA also offered its employees to resign with bonus payments

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has offered all of its employees the opportunity to resign with cash bonuses equal to eight months' salary. This was reported by The Wall street Journal (WSJ) on Tuesday, February 4.

Officials said this is an attempt to align the agency with U.S. President Donald Trump's priorities, including fighting drug cartels and shrinking the federal government.

The agency is also freezing hiring of new applicants who have already been given a conditional offer, said CIA Assistant Director John Ratcliffe.

But it is not clear whether other intelligence agencies will follow suit, the newspaper said.

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Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported that more than 20,000 U.S. officials (about 1% of the country's federal officials) have already agreed to the offer to resign in exchange for a delayed dismissal, which would allow them to continue paying their salaries until the end of September.

On January 30, CBS News reported that the Trump administration has demanded that some high-ranking members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) submit their resignations or retire. In case the demand is not fulfilled, the officials will be forcibly dismissed, specified the interlocutors of the publication.

Before that, on January 28, it was reported that the US Department of Justice fired more than a dozen employees involved in cases against US President Donald Trump. The dismissal of employees who worked in the team of special prosecutor Jack Smith is in line with the administration's "determination to purge the government of employees it considers disloyal to the President".

On January 20, Trump's team demanded the resignation of dozens of senior State Department diplomats in order to demonstrate a "decisive break" with the outgoing administration of current U.S. President Joe Biden. It is noted that American diplomats, including US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs John Bass and Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Jeffrey Pyatt, will leave their posts from noon on Monday after receiving instructions from Trump's aides.