Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that the situation amounted to attempted intimidation of congressional investigators, adding: “I am not taking it lightly.”
She confirmed that an internal agency investigation of the action has been referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. And she said that the CIA appears to have violated the Fourth Amendment barring unreasonable searches and seizures, various federal laws and a presidential executive order that bars the agency from conducting domestic searches and surveillance.
She has sought an apology and recognition that the CIA search of the committee’s computers was inappropriate, but said: “I have received neither.”
The comments by Feinstein, traditionally a strong advocate for the intelligence community, blow wide open a dispute that has simmered in recent weeks.
Through press reports, officials had alleged the CIA had searched computers intended to be used solely by the panel as part of its investigation. The searches, officials said, were conducted in an effort to determine how committee staff members had gained access to a draft version of an internal agency review of its controversial interrogation program.
The computers had been provided by the CIA and housed at a separate facility in Virginia operated by an agency contractors.
CIA officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said that Senate investigators accessed documents to which they were not entitled. Director John O. Brennan last week pushed back against allegations that the agency had acted inappropriately.
“I am deeply dismayed that some members of the Senate have decided to make spurious allegations about CIA actions that are wholly unsupported by the facts,” Brennan said in a statement Wednesday. “I am very confident that the appropriate authorities reviewing this matter will determine where wrongdoing, if any, occurred in either the Executive Branch or Legislative Branch. Until then, I would encourage others to refrain from outbursts that do a disservice to the important relationship that needs to be maintained between intelligence officials and Congressional overseers.”
Feinstein confirmed that committee investigators had received and reviewed documents detailing the interrogation policy, but said she didn’t know whether they were provided intentionally or unintentionally by CIA officials or by agency whistleblowers.
“The staff had asked the CIA about documents made available for our investigation. At times, the CIA has simply been unaware that these specific documents were provided to the committee,” she said. “And while this is alarming, it is important to know that more than 6.2 million pages of documents have been provided. This is simply a massive amount of records.”
Reading from a prepared text throughout her remarks, Feinstein said she was speaking out “reluctantly” but that she wanted to speak in order to clarify the situation. “The increasing amount of inaccurate information circulating now cannot be allowed to stand unanswered,” she said.
After she spoke, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said that “in 40 years here, it was one of the best speeches I’d ever heard and one of the most important.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) credited Feinstein for speaking out and defending the separation of powers. “There is no one who has more courage and conviction than Dianne Feinstein,” he said.
