California senator Dianne Feinstein is calling on the CIA to release documents detailing the involvement of Trump’s pick for CIA director, Gina Haspel, in the agency’s detention and interrogation program.
President Trump announced in a tweet Tuesday that he would be nominating Haspel, who is currently deputy CIA director, to replace Mike Pompeo, who will be his nominee for secretary of State.
“As we move forward with the nomination process for Ms. Haspel, my fellow senators and I must have the complete picture of Ms. Haspel’s involvement in the program in order to fully and fairly review her record and qualifications,” Feinstein wrote in a Thursday letter to Pompeo and Haspel.
The California senator asked for the “declassification of pertinent agency documents related to Ms. Haspel’s role in the CIA’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation Program.”
Haspel has been at the CIA for more than two decades and would be the first woman to fill the director role. She is expected to face a high level of scrutiny during the confirmation process due to her involvement in the CIA’s controversial interrogation program.
“The American people deserve to know the actual role the person nominated to be the director of the CIA played in what I consider to be one of the darkest chapters in American history,” Feinstein said.
Haspel reportedly briefly oversaw a CIA “black site” in Thailand, where al-Qaeda suspects were subject to waterboarding. She later reportedly supported the destruction of video footage that documented the waterboarding, as ordered by her then-boss.
“We as senators take our role in confirming a president’s cabinet seriously and must evaluate Ms. Haspel’s record, including troubling press reports on her involvement with torture programs,” Feinstein wrote. “While public reporting is useful, it is no substitute fo the actual truth held in CIA cables, emails, and internal memos.”
Feinstein, who led the charge on a 2014 “torture report,” appeared to respond well to the nomination when it was announced Tuesday. She described Haspel as a “good deputy director” and told reporters that she would wait to decide her vote until after her confirmation hearing.
Feinstein’s call for declassification mirrors that of other Democrats, including Oregon senator Ron Wyden, who said Tuesday he will oppose the nomination. Wyden called for “total transparency” about Haspel’s background.
“It is possible to declassify the information about her without compromising sources and methods,” he told reporters.
The American Civil Liberties Union made a similar request Tuesday and demanded that the CIA “declassify and release every aspect of Haspel’s torture record before the Senate considers the nomination.”
Kentucky Republican Rand Paul said Wednesday he would oppose Haspel’s nomination.
“To reward somebody, to make them head of the CIA, after they’re involved in something so horrendous—and I believe to be illegal—I think is a terrible, terrible message,” he said. “To read of her glee during the waterboarding is just absolutely appalling.”
Arizona senator John McCain said Tuesday that Haspel must “explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA’s interrogation program during the confirmation process.”
