Ranking Members Thompson, Magaziner Demand 22-Year-Old Head of DHS Counterterrorism Office Be Called to Testify
June 27, 2025 (WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI), Ranking Member of the subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, announced they sent a letter to Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) demanding he call Thomas Fugate – the 22-year-old college graduate and Trump campaign worker with no national security experience and now Director of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) – to testify before the Committee on current threats to the homeland. Their demand comes after the Department of Homeland Security’s advisory that the nation is at a heightened terrorism threat level after President Trump attacked Iran last week.
“As Chairman, it is your responsibility to demand that the Trump administration provide Members of the Committee a full threat picture and explain how DHS is working to protect Americans from any retaliatory attacks by Iran or its proxies,” the Ranking Members wrote. “Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism, has been implicated in assassinations, terrorist plots, and terrorist attacks in more than 40 countries since 1979, including several plots or attempted attacks in the U.S. against Americans.”
“We are deeply concerned about DHS’s ability to prevent any Iranian directed or inspired plots or attacks in the homeland given recent changes to its counterterrorism operations,” the Ranking Members added. “Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claimed that in her first 100 days in office she ‘returned the Department of Homeland Security to its core mission,’ but that couldn’t be further from the truth. DHS was established in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks with the primary mission of protecting Americans from terrorism threats. Instead, President Trump, has significantly diminished the counterterrorism systems we have built on a bipartisan basis in the 23 years since 9/11.”
CP3 is an office in DHS charged with preventing terrorism and targeted violence in the homeland by establishing and strengthening partnerships across all levels of government and with local law enforcement and the private sector. However, under the Trump administration, DHS has unlawfully withheld critical antiterrorism funding for law enforcement and first responders and has terminated the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) grant run by CP3 for allegedly not aligning with DHS priorities. After eliminating the TVTP program, DHS shrank the CP3 office to only 10 employees.
“The dismantling of CP3 and its programs has created security gaps that are ripe for exploitation by state-based and lone actors,” the Ranking members added.
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