The nation’s top spy office announced that it will switch its future election security briefings to Congress from being in-person to being conducted in writing, saying the change was due to concerns about classified leaks and politicization of intelligence.
“In order to ensure clarity and consistency across the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s engagements with Congress on elections, the ODNI will primarily meet its obligation to keep Congress fully and currently informed leading into the Presidential election through written finished intelligence products,” Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe informed congressional leaders in letters obtained by the Washington Examiner.
He added: “I believe this approach helps ensure, to the maximum extent possible, that the information ODNI provides the Congress in support of your oversight responsibilities on elections security, foreign malign influence, and election interference is not misunderstood nor politicized. It will also better protect our sources and methods and most sensitive intelligence from additional unauthorized disclosures or misuse.”
Ratcliffe, who has overseen the nation’s 17 spy agencies since May, sent eight letters informing the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, among others, of the move.
As first reported by CNN, briefings from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will move to written submissions, although CNN cited a senior administration official who said that the Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security intend to continue briefing Congress in person.
“We are committed to meeting our statutory responsibilities and keeping Congress fully and currently informed,” an ODNI official told the Washington Examiner, adding, “We are concerned about unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information following recent briefings. The DNI is committed to ensuring Congress is fully and currently informed and that classified information is protected.”
Bill Evanina, who leads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, released a more detailed intelligence assessment in early August warning that Russia is actively trying to “denigrate” Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The same statement also said China “prefers” that President Trump not win reelection and is “expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020.” The counterintelligence official also said Iran “seeks to undermine” Trump’s presidency.
Democrats quickly condemned ODNI’s move on Saturday.
“This is a shocking abdication of its lawful responsibility to keep the Congress currently informed, and a betrayal of the public’s right to know how foreign powers are trying to subvert our democracy,” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said in a joint statement.
They added: “This is shameful and — coming only weeks before the election — demonstrates that the Trump Administration is engaged in a politicized effort to withhold election-related information from Congress and the American people at the precise moment that greater transparency and accountability is required.”
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted: “Unacceptable. DNI Ratcliffe has made clear he’s in the job only to protect Trump from democracy, not democracy from Trump.”
“For his administration to constrain the information being provided to the peoples’ representatives in Congress as this national security threat multiplies — especially given Donald Trump’s unprecedented welcoming of these assaults on our democracy for his own gain — is deeply alarming,” Biden campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement. “This should be reversed immediately.”
Richard Grenell, Ratcliffe’s predecessor, tweeted: “The briefings will be in written form rather than verbal. Which is great — because this way politicians won’t get to leak to the cheerleading reporters and spin a tall tale.”
In late July, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and acting Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Marco Rubio called upon Democratic leadership to stop “politiciz[ing] intelligence matters” after ODNI said it was concerned specifically about Russia, China, and Iran.
“Divulging access to classified information in order to employ it as a political weapon is not only an abuse, it is a serious federal crime with potentially severe consequences on our national security. This situation we now face is due, in no small part, to the willingness of some to commit federal crimes for the purpose of advancing their electoral aims,” Rubio said Saturday. “Yet, this grotesque criminal misconduct does not release the intelligence community from fulfilling its legal requirements to respond to Congressional oversight committees and to keep members of Congress fully informed of relevant information on a timely basis. I have spoken to the Director Radcliffe who stated unequivocally that he will continue to fulfill these obligations.”
At a Hurricane Laura roundtable in Texas, Trump and chief of staff Mark Meadows shed a bit more light on ODNI’s decision to move to written updates when asked about it by reporters.
“Director Ratcliffe brought information into the committee, and the information leaked,” Trump said. “Whether it was ‘Shifty Schiff’ or somebody else, they leaked the information before it gets in, and what’s even worse — they leaked the wrong information. And he got tired of it. So, he wants to do it in a different form because you have leakers on the committee. Obviously, leakers that are doing bad things — probably not even legal to leak, but we’ll look into that separately.”
“He’s going to ultimately give full briefings in terms of — not oral briefings — but full intel briefings. But it really comes down to one simple thing: the last time they gave briefings, a few members went out and talked to the press and disclosed information that they shouldn’t have disclosed,” Meadows said. “And so he’s going to make sure that there’s the proper tools for their oversight and make sure that they contain it in a way that does not jeopardize sources and methods for the intel that we gather.”
In March, ODNI officials told lawmakers they rejected a stream of media reports based on leaks from classified briefings on election security in February, including anonymously sourced claims at the time that Russia was trying to help Sen. Bernie Sanders defeat Biden and was working to help Trump’s reelection.
“The IC has not concluded that the Kremlin is directly aiding any candidate’s reelection or any other candidates’ election. Nor have we concluded that the Russians will definitely choose to try to do so in 2020,” the ODNI’s declassified fact sheet said at the time. “This is not a Russia-only problem.”
Ratcliffe’s congressional letters said that the intelligence community has provided more than 60 defensive briefings and election security updates to Congress since 2018, including more than a dozen in the past few months, but defended switching to written updates.
The spy chief’s letter concluded: “It is vital that the IC speak with one clear voice on an issue so critical to the American people.”
A senior official from ODNI said Wednesday that intelligence agencies have found “no information or intelligence” that foreign adversaries were looking to “undermine” the mail-in voting process, seeming to cast doubt on concerns raised by Trump and Attorney General William Barr. Officials from the Department of Homeland Security and FBI also said that the U.S. is better prepared to thwart meddling efforts now than it was four years ago.
Robert Mueller’s special counsel report, released in April 2019, said Russians interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” but “did not establish” criminal collusion between any Russians and anyone in Trump’s orbit.
Ratcliffe recently said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner that “China poses a greater national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation — economically, militarily and technologically” — and “that includes threats of election influence and interference.”
