The Central Intelligence Agency gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., advanced warning before CIA Chief Leon Panetta sent a memo to employees at the spy agency that countered Pelosi’s claim that the agency lied to Congress about waterboarding.
A CIA official, but not Panetta, made the call to Pelosi.
“His office gave a heads up,” a Democratic aide said Monday.
The aide said Pelosi protested Panetta’s memo on the call to no avail.
Republicans continued leveling criticism at Pelosi Monday, four days after Pelosi accused the CIA of lying about waterboarding.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Pelosi needs to apologize to employees at the agency.
But Democrats pointed to a Monday afternoon press conference with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in which a reporter asked if Obama has confidence in Pelosi’s roll as speaker.
“He does,” Gibbs responded, but refused to comment further about Pelosi’s accusations or Panetta’s response.
But one top Republican aide said it would be unusual for Panetta to act without the White House “being aware of it first,” particularly because the memo referred to the speaker.
Panetta told employees in Friday’s memo that the CIA had “truthfully” briefed Congress in 2002 and that it is “up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened.
A day earlier, Pelosi told reporters that she believes the CIA mislead Congress about the interrogation techniques used to get information from high profile detainees. CIA officials, Pelosi said, lied to her in a 2002 meeting by failing to disclose that they were using waterboarding to get information from terror suspects. Her comments drew immediate backlash from Republicans, who accused her of lying about what the CIA told her in 2002.
Pelosi clarified her response a day later.
“My criticism of the manner in which the Bush Administration did not appropriately inform Congress is separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe,” she said in a statement released after the Panetta memo became public on Friday.
The controversy has drawn in members of her own party, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who said on Thursday that he did not “draw that conclusion” when asked by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., whether he also believed the CIA lied to Congress, as Pelosi had alleged earlier that day.
Aides explained that Hoyer was saying he did not believe there is a bias in Congress against the CIA and that he believes Pelosi’s account that she was misled by the CIA in 2002.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson, D-Conn., said Pelosi’s comments have not put her leadership, or the Democratic agenda, in jeopardy.
“Believe me when I say this, Nancy Pelosi is not in any trouble,” Larson told MSNBC Monday. “If anything, the wagons are circling more around the speaker during this time.”
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