House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., asked the nation’s intelligence community leaders to brief the panel Thursday about Russia’s hacking of Democratic Party officials and alleged interference in last month’s elections.
Nunes is seeking information from the heads of the CIA, FBI, NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. So far they haven’t replied, according to Nunes’s office.
The request comes as Democrats, and some Republicans, are calling for probes into the matter. The intelligence community determined in October that Russia was behind the hacks of email accounts belonging to Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign officials. However, since then, the CIA concluded that Russia did so to help President-elect Trump win the White House — an assessment ODNI is not willing to sign off on yet.
Nunes wants the discrepancies resolved.
For his part, Trump has said he’s not convinced that Russia was behind the cyberattacks.
“The House Intelligence Committee is conducting vigorous oversight of the investigations into election-related cyber attacks,” Nunes wrote on Monday. “Seeing as cyber attacks, including Russian attacks, have been one of the committee’s top priorities for many years, we’ve held extensive briefings and hearings on the topic. As the FBI, CIA, and other elements of the Intelligence Community continue their investigations into these attacks, the House Intelligence Committee will remain a vigilant monitor of their efforts.
“We will also closely oversee the production of the report on these attacks requested by President Obama to ensure its analytical integrity,” he continued. “At this time I do not see any benefit in opening further investigations, which would duplicate current committee oversight efforts and Intelligence Community inquiries.”
