The Office of the Director of National Intelligence tells Congressional intelligence committees that they will no longer be allowed to ask questions about election security.
Normally, Intelligence officials meet with Congressional committees for in-person briefings on election security. The briefings allow committee members to clarify information that might seem confusing or vague, among other things. Instead, those committees will begin receiving written updates.
“With a written release or a written report, you avoid the back-and-forth of questions, some of which could be quite probing. And I think, I think the DNI would like to avoid that and avoid the risk of saying something that might incur the wrath of the President…
I think this is a terrible thing with respect to the need to inform the electorate about what foreign nations are doing to interfere in our political process.”
James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence
The Justice Department, Homeland Security, and Defense Department will continue to brief Congressional intelligence committees on election security, but that shouldn’t inspire any optimism. Both the Department of Justice (William Barr) and Homeland Security (Chad Wolf) are under the leadership of Trump-appointed officials who have repeated the president’s election conspiracies and protester fear mongering.
The current Director of National Intelligence is John Ratcliffe, a former U.S. Representative. He was sworn in on May 26, 2020, ten months after Donald Trump first nominated him. His nomination in July 2019 received heavy criticism from Senate Republicans, former Intelligence officials, and the media.
If the Trump regime has gotten ODNI to stand down, what other agencies may be looking the other way instead of focusing on foreign and domestic threats? He has corrupted leaders at DOJ, USPS, Census Bureau, HHS, DHS, OMB, GSA and CDC. What’s next? FBI?
Walter Shaub, former Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics
Sources
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-nominating-chad-wolf-to-be-homeland-security-chief-2020-8
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/02/politics/trump-ratcliffe-dni/index.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-02/ratcliffe-withdraws-from-intelligence-nomination-trump-says
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/ratcliffe-will-not-be-nominated-intelligence-chief-job-trump-says-n1038806
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/us/politics/trump-ratcliffe-dni.html
https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1299801034777341952
Photo: Public Domain