House panel launches probe into DHS intel office
The House Intelligence Committee has opened an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence arm, according to a letter its chairman sent to top DHS officials on Monday.
The probe will scrutinize how the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis has responded to protests against racism and police brutality in Portland and around the country. In the letter, the panel’s chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), cited reports that the office had disseminated intelligence about journalists and protesters.
“The revelations thus far require a full accounting, and, if substantiated, must never be allowed to occur again,” he wrote.
Schiff’s letter also cited a POLITICO article from the weekend that reported that DHS’s second-in-command, Ken Cuccinelli, limited the ability of department’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to oversee I&A’s work. That move came several months before the office’s reports on journalists and protesters drew national criticism.
Schiff’s letter asked for a host of documents, as well as transcribed interviews with a number of DHS officials. One of those officials, Bryan Murphy, was the acting chief of I&A when it disbursed the reports in question. DHS leadership removed him from that post late last week.
