The House's Homeland Security chairman Bennie G. Thompson claims the U.S. law enforcement leaders are backing out of a deal that involved briefing lawmakers about threats to the nation's security, as part of the latest dispute between the members of Congress and Trump administration over the Hill's access to intelligence.
In a Thompson wrote a letter on Wednesday, and was obtained by POLITICO, he says the stubbornness U.S. law enforcement leaders at the last moment is as outrageous as their offer to inform the Committee about two months ago. Thompson says their action raises serious questions about whether the agencies want to keep Members of Congress updated and if they respect the Committee’s oversight responsibilities
Addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Lora Shiao, acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, and the acting head of the National Counterterrorism Center, the memo claims the panel collaborated with the office in good faith for over a month to arrange the aforesaid session. Thompson urged them to immediately commit to sending representatives to provides the latest updates about worldwide threats to the committee during a classified setting.
The dispute with the House panel comes in the wake of top lawmakers on the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee separately pushing for Trump's intelligence officials to publicly testify about global threats in front of Congress' August recess. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has tried moving the Senate briefing behind closed doors after 2019's session urged Trump to attack his agency chiefs for not echoing his views on multiple issues such as North Korea and Iran.
The House Homeland Security panel usually holds a public hearing on global threats around Sept. 11 terror attacks anniversary. This session did not take place in 2018 because of the Trump administration's push back. It took place last year after Thompson summoned the then-acting DHS and NCTC chiefs.
A Democratic committee staffer told POLITICO that the panel originally involved DHS, FBI, and ODNI (of which the NCTC is a part) in June about the hearing. The negotiation between the two sides led to changing the format of the briefing into a classified one.
ODNI later suggested that the briefing should take place virtually, but that idea didn't come to fruition citing security concerns, the staff member explained. This format was readjusted to be an in-person briefing before the agencies terminated it last week, postponing the briefing to Sept. instead.
Thompson's letter reiterates a request for the official to attend the impending annual hearing in front of the panel, pointing out that last year the committee was compelled to deliver subpoenas in a bid to obtain testimony as last hope.