Tulsi Gabbard’s right-hand man allegedly directed a group of intelligence officials to alter their report on Venezuelan gang activity so that it would align with statements President Donald Trump has made on immigration.

In newly leaked emails obtained by The New York Times, Gabbard’s acting chief of staff, Joe Kent, offered the unusual instructions for the National Intelligence Council on April 3.

“We need to do some rewriting so this document is not used against the DNI or POTUS,” he wrote, with acronyms referring to Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and the president.

The document in question was an intelligence assessment on the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, the target of the Trump administration’s most sweeping actions on immigration so far.

On March 15, Trump signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which has only been used three times before — all during wartime — in order to target noncitizens who can then be “apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies.”

The declaration authorized the removal of all Venezuelan citizens ages 14 and older who are not U.S. citizens or “lawful” permanent residents and were believed to be affiliated with Tren de Aragua.

Trump justified his use of the act in part by implying that the Tren de Aragua are working with, or aided by, the Venezuelan government.

“TDA is undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela,” he declared in the executive order that invoked the 18th-century law. “I make these findings using the full extent of my authority to conduct the Nation’s foreign affairs under the Constitution.”

However, the Feb. 26 intelligence assessment that Kent wanted to alter directly contradicted the idea that the gang was affiliated with the Venezuelan government or the Maduro regime.

The National Intelligence Council — an internal think-tank that analyzes information gathered by the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and more — concluded in both the initial and revised assessments that the Venezuelan government “probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States.”

While there was some dissent on the part of the FBI analysts who believe that “some Venezuelan government officials facilitate TDA members’ migration,” most of the intelligence community disagrees with the idea that the government as a whole is working in tandem with the gang.

“Intelligence indicating that regime leaders are directing or enabling TDA migration to the United States is not credible,” the memo said.

Among other reasons to dispute the claim, the council cited a lack of evidence from spy agencies about communication and monetary exchanges that would be expected if the gang and government were working together.

In his emails, Kent — who is currently awaiting the Senate’s approval to lead the National Counterterrorism Center — also encouraged intelligence officials including Michael Collins, then the acting head of the National Intelligence Council, to emphasize the claim that the Venezuelan government was orchestrating immigration to the United States, whether or not those immigrants were gang members.

“Flooding our nation with ‘migrants’ and especially ‘migrants’ who are part of a violent criminal gang is the action of a hostile nation, even if the [government] of Venezuela isn’t specifically tasking or enabling TDA’s operations,” he wrote.

This was also disputed in the intelligence assessment, which ultimately claimed that Venezuelan immigrants leave their own country “voluntarily, often at great personal risk, to flee political instability and near-collapse of Venezuela’s economy.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer.

The White House requested the original assessment in February, though the information it contained did not stop Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act and starting mass deportations.

After a New York Times report in late March pointed out the discrepancies between the president’s statement and the intelligence assessment, Kent began emailing about altering the language in the report.

According to the Times, Kent and Collins exchanged emails about “edits” on April 3 and 4.  

“Let’s just come out and say TDA leaders are given sanctuary in Venezuela as their gang members commit horrendous crimes in America, then we can provide the context about our exact knowledge of the relationship between TDA and the Venezuelan government,” Kent requested, as reported by the Times.

Ultimately, the final version of the memo — which was released to the public on May 5 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request — still contradicted Trump’s claim about the Venezuelan government’s collusion with Tren de Aragua.

A week after its release, Gabbard fired Collins and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof. 

Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, released a statement accusing Gabbard’s office of retaliation.

“Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the President’s political agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical,” he wrote.