President Trump’s newly reported disclosure of sensitive intelligence information to Russian officials created problems for several of his nominees Tuesday, leading Democrats to ask them tough questions about the incident and the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia in a confirmation hearing.
Trump’s picks for anti-terrorism posts at the Treasury faced an awkward situation as they tried to answer questions about whether Trump’s revelation of classified information hurt the country.
Already, the nominees for the important posts have faced the threat of a delay from Democrats over the investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible connections to Russia. The latest White House crisis has only made their confirmation process more complicated. The Trump administration argued Tuesday that Trump’s comments were an appropriate use of intelligence that didn’t jeopardize relationships with allies.
“I’m sure you’ve read the papers today,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the top ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, addressing Sigal Mandelker, the nominee for under secretary for terrorism and financial crimes.
Brown asked if Trump’s revelation of sensitive information provided by an ally “would harm our ability to gather future intelligence from that ally.”
Mandelker deflected the question, saying that she would need to know the underlying circumstances of the disclosure. She again sought to dodge the question when it was repeated by Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat.
“Wouldn’t human nature dictate that — hell no, they wouldn’t give us information again?” he said.
“I agree that it’s very important to safeguard the intelligence we receive,” Mandelker eventually responded. If confirmed, she would be responsible for uprooting terrorist financing networks and overseeing U.S. sanctions on other countries and terrorists.
Democrats raised concerns about advancing nominees given the Trump administration’s management of the latest crisis in addition to the Russia investigation.
“I would wonder if we would have this hearing at all if we had a different president that had just fired the director of the FBI, apparently for doing an investigation, maybe, into the president or not, and a president who’s just been accused of transferring top secret information to a foe of ours,” Tester said. “And I just wonder if we’d be having this hearing at all if the shoe was on the other foot.”
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee responsible for investigating Russia’s role in the election, told Mandelker that he could not support advancing her nomination until the Treasury provided answers to inquiries from the intelligence committee. “This investigation, I believe, is the most important thing I’ll have taken on in my public life,” he said.
Multiple Democrats asked the nominees, which included Trump’s pick for assistant secretary for terrorist fnancing, whether they would be more loyal to Trump or to the country, and whether they would hide information at the White House’s request.
“It’s not unfair to ask you this question: Who is your loyalty to?” asked Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota.
The four nominees responded that they owed loyalty to the American people and the Constitution.
