CIA’s top doctor sues over her firing, accusing the government of bowing to far-right

The CIA’s former top-ranking doctor is suing the spy agency over her firing, accusing the government of denying her due process and allegedly bowing to far-right activists who singled her out for criticism.

Terry Adirim, director of the CIA’s Center for Global Health Services, was hired by the agency after serving as assistant secretary of defense for health affairs at the Pentagon during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Just days after starting her job last year at the CIA, far-right commentator Ivan Raiklin accused Adirim of allegedly being the “architect” of the Defense Department’s vaccine mandate, which required members of the military to get the Covid-19 jab.  

The lawsuit alleges that Adirim’s hiring at the CIA was not yet announced publicly and that someone inside the government leaked that information to Raiklin.

Raiklin, a former Green Beret who has called himself the “secretary of retribution,” has been an intense critic of the Covid-19 vaccine, calling it a “DNA-mutilation injection.” He has demanded retaliation against Pentagon officials who he believes were involved in requiring service members to get the Covid-19 vaccine.  

Raiklin is associated with Michael Flynn, who briefly served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser at the start of his first term.

The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Adirim was fired only weeks after receiving an email from the CIA’s chief operating officer saying that the spy agency “looked forward to investing in her career,” according to the lawsuit.

The firing also came two days after Lara Loomer, another far-right conspiracy theorist, paid a visit to the White House and urged that several national security officials be dismissed for alleged disloyalty, according to the lawsuit. 

Loomer later took credit for the abrupt firing of the director of the National Security Agency, four-star Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, as well as the agency’s civilian deputy.

“We’re suing CIA to enjoin the Agency from firing Dr. Adirim, and seeking damages for violating her privacy, ignoring her due process rights, and breaching her employment contract,” Adirim’s lawyer, Kevin Carroll, said in a statement.

Carroll states in the lawsuit that he will seek to prove through discovery that Raiklin worked with Loomer to secure Adirim’s dismissal.