This morning, during her opening statement, Minority Judicial Committee Chair Diane Feinstein, said her only concern with IG Horowitz’s report on the spying of the Trump campaign, was that the print was too small and that it was heavy for the 86-year-old lawmaker.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein: "I hope people will get this report. If I have a grievance, it's that the print is too small."
Sen. Lindsey Graham: "I agree with that." pic.twitter.com/Q8AWcbxXHp
— The Hill (@thehill) December 11, 2019
In March 2014, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) blasted government surveillance by the CIA directed at the Senate Intelligence Committee.
CNET reported about how Senator Feinstein excoriated the CIA in 2014 – The California senator, who has been the chair of the committee since 2009, said on Tuesday that the Central Intelligence Agency improperly monitored an independent computer network created for Congress to investigate allegations of torture and abuse in a detention and interrogation program from the George W. Bush administration.
Feinstein went public with the allegations after the CIA ignored letters from her on January 17 and January 23 that demanded an explanation and an apology.
She said in a statement on the Senate floor that she although she had been “trying to resolve this dispute in a discreet and respectful way,” she had “grave concerns that the CIA’s search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the US Constitution.”
She added that the CIA’s inspector general, David Buckley, sent the dispute to the Justice Department, “given the possibility of a criminal violation by CIA personnel.”
CIA Director John Brennan denied the accusation in a statement from last week.
“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,” he said. “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,” he said.
Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also voiced concern over the alleged CIA spying.
“In addition to the grave implications for the Constitutional separation of powers, I am extremely troubled that the CIA leadership has neither responded to specific questions about this search nor even acknowledged that it was inappropriate,” said Wyden in a statement. “This is simply not acceptable in a democracy.”
