Could you?

Sure I could. There's no federal law that says Subdivision X of Bureaucratic Organization Y has to be the same way every year.

and you "reorganize" their department and eliminate just their job, you probably wouldn't be able to make that stick.

Sure I could. There are plenty of innovative and creative ways to make that work. The best part is, knowledge of intelligence info is a perishable skill and every day these people are cut off from the flow of data they become less valuable in their fields.

So fire them, reorganize them, whatever. However you want to call it, they're gone. Let them sue all they want; they're still gone and not seeing any more juicy classified information.

And if by some miracle they get their jobs back, they still won't have access to a security clearance. They're more than welcome to take temperature readings of Alaskan tundra if they want. But they're finished as "intelligence professionals".

Did it? yes.

Why? How do you know they didn't genuinely believe what they wrote? Even if you believe that, could you prove it?

I don't need to prove anything. There's no hiding behind lawyers while sitting there in a deposition with a shit-eating grin on all their faces. They know what they did, they know why they did it.

So when I would sign the order terminating their jobs and eliminating their means to profit off of intelligence information...I'd also do it with a shit-eating grin on my face.