Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee to head the CIA, will plow ahead with the confirmation process despite fleeting doubts from the White House that led her to offer to withdraw.
“The nomination remains on track,” a CIA official told the Washington Examiner.
The agency shipped boxes of classified information to Capitol Hill Monday that will be provided to each senator. The binders include secret information relating to the entirety of her three-decade career at the CIA, including her time running the agency’s counterterrorism unit that conducted enhanced interrogation techniques more than a decade ago.
Haspel faces the Senate Intelligence Committee for questioning on Wednesday. According to CIA officials, she has no plans to withdraw her nomination or postpone the process.
Over the weekend, news outlets reported Haspel offered to withdraw her nomination after White House officials questioned whether her resume overseeing enhanced interrogation techniques, otherwise labeled torture, would make it impossible for her to win confirmation.
A group of Senate Democrats is demanding the CIA not only provide the documents, but also make them available for the public to see.
The CIA, however, has kept some information classified for national security reasons, agency officials said.
“Contrary to claims by some that the CIA is covering up, they are being incredibly forthcoming with the senators regarding her record and when she gets a chance to speak to the American people, we expect she will do great and she will be confirmed,” the CIA official said.
Haspel stands a solid chance of winning approval from the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee, where only Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is undecided.
But opposition from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., means the GOP will have to win over at least one Democrat.
Haspel’s supporters say they are confident she will eventually win the backing of several Democrats.
But opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have been loudly advocating for the Senate to defeat Haspel over her role in post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism activities and for the CIA to reveal the resources it is using to promote Haspel, who is now acting director of the CIA.
“The American people have a right to know about the new propaganda campaign that the CIA is now waging on behalf of Gina Haspel even as it hides her responsibility for torture and role in destruction of torture evidence,” said ACLU attorney Dror Ladin, who has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the information.
Haspel was on Capitol Hill Monday, visiting with Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.
Feinstein and Heinrich have demanded additional information from Haspel regarding her involvement in approving enhanced interrogation techniques be made public.
“We’re calling on the CIA to declassify information on Gina Haspel’s role in the Enhanced Interrogation Program,” Heinrich said Monday. “Without making this information available to the American people, her nomination cannot be fully and properly considered by the Senate.”
President Trump tweeted Monday that Democrats are attacking Haspel for taking on terrorism.
“My highly respected nominee for CIA Director, Gina Haspel, has come under fire because she was too tough on Terrorists,” Trump tweeted. “Think of that, in these very dangerous times, we have the most qualified person, a woman, who Democrats want OUT because she is too tough on terror. Win Gina!”
[Trump defends CIA pick from Democrats who say she was ‘too tough on terrorists’]