A behind-the-scenes battle between the CIA and Congress erupted in public Tuesday as the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the agency of breaking laws and breaching constitutional principles in an alleged effort to undermine the panel’s multi-year investigation of a controversial interrogation program.
Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA of secretly removing documents, searching committee-used computers and attempting to intimidate congressional investigators by requesting an FBI inquiry of their conduct — charges that CIA Director John Brennan disputed within hours of her appearance on the Senate floor.
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) questioned whether a CIA search of congressional records might have undermined government oversight during a Senate floor speech Tuesday.
Read more:
Why the CIA and lawmakers are feuding
Adam Goldman 8:16 AM ET
What you need to know about the dispute over an investigation o the agency’s interrogation program.
Transcript: Feinstein says CIA searched Intelligence panel computers
7:32 AM ET
“Let me say up front that I come to the Senate floor reluctantly,” she said.
Transcript: Brennan says his agency has done nothing wrong
10:53 AM ET
“If I did something wrong, I will go to the president and I will explain to him exactly what I did and what the findings were,” he said.
Senators praise Feinstein speech, want answers from CIA
Wesley Lowery and Ed O'Keefe 12:32 PM ET
If true, “this is Richard Nixon stuff,” one senator says.
Feinstein described the escalating conflict as a “defining moment” for Congress’s role in overseeing the nation’s intelligence agencies and cited “grave concerns” that the CIA had “violated the separation-of-powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution.”
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