Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on intelligence officials to push back against sharing sensitive information with acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte, accusing the Trump administration of orchestrating a “naked partisan takeover” of the nation’s spy agencies.

During an appearance on the “Defending Democracy with Marc Elias” podcast, Clinton voiced deep concerns over Pulte’s appointment and urged career officials and political appointees across the intelligence community to obstruct his access to classified material.

“We should definitely be worried about everything,” Clinton said. “This is a naked partisan takeover of the director of national intelligence, which was formed following 9/11 to better try to coordinate the various intelligence agencies.”

Clinton traced the origins of the DNI position to the intelligence failures that preceded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, noting that Congress created the office to improve coordination among the disparate intelligence agencies. “Because we missed a lot of signals that we should have paid attention to leading up to 9/11, and it was thought in this legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security and created the DNI that this would be a better coordinating mechanism,” she explained.

While acknowledging what she described as structural flaws within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Clinton underscored the vast reach of the DNI’s authority over America’s classified intelligence apparatus. “I think there’s a lot of problems with it, but it is at the hub of all of our intelligence. The DNI has access to everything, everything that they want to see,” she said.

Clinton then made a direct appeal to intelligence professionals, expressing hope that they would resist Pulte’s efforts to obtain information. “I mean, I hope there are career and even political appointees, in various of the agencies, that are slow-walking or refusing to share information with Pulte,” she said.

President Donald Trump appointed Pulte, who previously served as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to the acting DNI role last month following the departure of Tulsi Gabbard. Pulte continues to lead the FHFA while simultaneously overseeing the U.S. intelligence community on an interim basis — an arrangement that has drawn sharp criticism due to his lack of prior intelligence or national security experience.

Since assuming the intelligence post, Pulte has initiated an overhaul of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as part of the administration’s broader push to downsize the federal workforce and restructure executive branch agencies.

Democrats have been vocal in their opposition to Pulte’s appointment, with much of the criticism centering on his tenure at the FHFA, where he referred several prominent Trump critics — including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook — for alleged mortgage fraud. Pulte has dismissed accusations that those referrals were politically motivated.

Earlier this week, Pulte renewed allegations against Cook after the Supreme Court declined to immediately allow the Trump administration to remove her from the Federal Reserve Board while litigation over her dismissal continues, keeping the controversy in the public eye.