IC Workforce & Organization — 2026-08-20

First Openly Transgender CIA Officer Julia Curlee Reveals White House Fired Her After Laura Loomer Campaign Despite 20 Years of Service and Daily Briefing VP Pence

BLUFExternal activist campaigns now function as a de facto personnel veto over White House staffing, undermining IC retention by exposing career officers to identity-based removal unconnected to performance or security.

Julia Curlee, a two-decade CIA veteran who served as Vice President Mike Pence's daily intelligence briefer, wrote in an Atlantic essay published Monday that the White House ended her National Security Council post in late March 2025 1. The removal came the same day activist Laura Loomer publicly called for firing a transgender NSC staffer she accused of opposing Trump 1. The Advocate reported Curlee had been spared three days into the administration when roughly 160 NSC detailees were dismissed, then was removed by phone call 69 days later while visiting family in Roanoke, Virginia, with officials citing no stated reason 2. Curlee, who told Lawfare she was the first CIA officer to transition genders and continue serving, said she can no longer advise LGBTQ Americans to join the agency 23.

Analysis
Curlee's removal after Loomer's public campaign signals that external activist pressure can now override the White House's judgments about which career officials merit continuity, a precedent extending retention risk to any detailee whose identity becomes a public target regardless of operational value or clearance history. It fits a pattern of NSC departures following Loomer's interventions, suggesting personnel decisions increasingly track visibility campaigns rather than performance review, though the anti-holdover purge may instead be targeting any detailee Loomer flagged as insufficiently loyal, with Curlee's transgender identity simply the identifying detail rather than the removal's primary criterion. Sourcing weight is thin: Lawfare supplies the sole primary account, with HuffPost and The Advocate amplifying rather than independently confirming it.

3 sources