President Donald Trump’s pick for CIA director, Gina Haspel, is expected to face a combative coterie of senators during her long-awaited confirmation hearing Wednesday.
Dozens of former intelligence and national security officials have publicly lined up behind Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran who, if confirmed, would be the agency’s first female director. But Democrats have been pushing the agency to declassify and release more information about her involvement in the CIA’s now-defunct interrogation program, and are near-guaranteed to place the issue front and center on Wednesday.
“I have seen all the intelligence, and I continue to believe that the American people are still going to be kept in the dark about who this nominee actually is,” Oregon senator Ron Wyden said Monday. He later added, “past is prologue.”
Haspel’s nomination has been plagued with controversy due to her time briefly overseeing a CIA “black site” in Thailand where al-Qaeda suspects were waterboarded, as well as her involvement later in the destruction of tapes that documented the interrogations. The uproar over her nomination came to a head Friday, when she nearly withdrew out of concern for the agency’s reputation and, to a lesser extent, her own, according to the New York Times.
The CIA has made a rare public push to tell Haspel’s story in recent weeks and this month released information outlining her 33 years spent mainly in the clandestine service. In an apparent effort to address unease over Haspel’s involvement in the destruction of the tapes, the agency last month also declassified a 2011 disciplinary review memo that absolved her of wrongdoing. “Ms. Haspel did not destroy the tapes, she did not oversee the destruction of the tapes, and she did not order the destruction of the tapes,” former deputy director Mike Morell, who wrote the memo, said in a statement after its declassification.
Democrats have criticized the agency’s disclosures as selective and superficial, and are continuing to call for a comprehensive declassification of Haspel’s record.
“There needs to be a declassification process that makes it possible to have a meaningful nomination debate where the American people are able to evaluate the qualifications, the judgment, the timber of the person being nominated,” New Mexico senator Martin Heinrich, who sits on the intelligence panel, said Monday. “We are in a position today where so little relevant information has been shared that I don’t think it’s feasible to do that.”
The information that is publicly available about Haspel’s record could work in her favor Wednesday. That goes especially for her service related to Russia.
“She’s one of the smartest people that I know with regard to Russia,” said Steve Hall, who spent 30 years at the CIA and ran Russian operations there. “She is very, very realistic, as I think we need to be, about Russia right now. She understands the damage that the Russian intelligence services have tried to do to the United States over the years, to include the attack on our elections in 2016.”
White House legislative director Marc Short told reporters last week that the administration is “continuing to work with CIA and continuing to declassify documents.” The agency on Monday delivered a package of classified documents to the Senate that it said detail Haspel’s career, including her post-9/11 counter-terrorism work.
Haspel could face a narrow vote in the Senate, with Republicans holding a 51-49 majority and Kentucky senator Rand Paul, who in March described Haspel as “the head cheerleader for waterboarding,” already opposed. He flipped on his opposition to newly-confirmed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after talking to the president last month, but has not publicly budged on Haspel.
Arizona Republican John McCain also said in March that Haspel will have to answer for her involvement in the detention and interrogation program. It is unclear whether he will be in attendance for the vote.
Senator Jeff Flake said on Monday that he has not made up his mind on Haspel. “I do have concerns,” he told reporters. Flake said that he saw McCain Friday but that the two did not discuss Haspel.
Still, even with some opposition from both parties, Republicans have predicted that she will have the votes to clear the Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week that he expects Haspel to be confirmed.
“She’s not only going to be the first woman CIA director, which I think is not insignificant, particularly in a field like that, but she’s . . . certainly the most qualified nominee any president’s ever made for that particular job,” he told Hugh Hewitt.
Haspel has been putting in face time with Democrats on the intelligence panel this week, and met with Heinrich, California senator Dianne Feinstein, and West Virginia senator Joe Manchin on Monday. Manchin and other red state Democrats who voted for Pompeo are seen as more likely to vote for Haspel. Florida Democrat Bill Nelson, who is facing re-election and voted for Pompeo last month, has also signaled openness.
Short told reporters last week that the White House hopes to see Haspel confirmed before the Senate leaves for Memorial Day recess.
