A member of the House Intelligence Committee said lawmakers were snubbed by top intelligence agencies, who canceled a scheduled briefing on Russian hacking leading up to November’s election.
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Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, said on Fox News Thursday the committee asked the CIA, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for a briefing on the hacks into the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager.
But, the agencies canceled the briefing because the investigation into the hacks is ongoing, reports indicate. Wenstrup said they’re shirking their responsibilities to the American people.
“There’s grave concern as to why they denied us access to them and their information,” he said. “This is our job, and this is their job as well.”
The committee is tasked with overseeing intelligence matters and wanted to know more about the reports of Russian hacking this week.
Wenstrup said members were ready to fly back to Washington, D.C., for Thursday’s meeting and wanted to quiz the leaders of the FBI, CIA and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on recent reports.
“What’s come out in these anonymous reports from the CIA are not consistent with the public statements from the agency, nor are they consistent with what we’re hearing in our briefings,” he said.
Wenstrup didn’t want to speculate on why the intelligence officials canceled the meeting, but lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are worried they aren’t taking their transparency responsibilities seriously.
“We have a constitutional duty to provide the oversight and they have a constitutional duty to respond to us,” he said.
Wenstrup added he wanted advice from the intelligence community on how lawmakers can protect themselves from being hacked as well.
“It’s important members of Congress and members of the government become aware of preventing attacks on their own computers and their own servers,” he said.
