Like something out of a James Bond film: CIA accused of violating the US Constitution by Chairwoman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), the powerful Chairwoman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee said Tuesday morning that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “secretly removed classified documents from a computer system used by Congress”,possibly in an effort to evade Congressional oversight .
By doing so the CIA may have violated the United States Constitution.
Feinstein said that the agency’s alleged actions may have violated the constitutional principle of congressional oversight, as well as both the Fourth Amendment and a presidential executive order that prohibits the CIA from engaging in domestic search and surveillance.
A serious violation.
Sen. Feinstein also indicated the CIA improperly searched a stand-alone computer network at the agency’s Langley, Virginia headquarters that was put in place so that Intelligence Committee staffers could view sensitive documents.
She had “grave concerns that the CIA’s search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the US Constitution.”
There is “no legitimate reason to allege to the Justice Department that Senate staff may have committed a crime,” Feinstein said, adding that she viewed the CIA’s request for an investigation as a “potential effort to intimidate this staff.”
John Brennan, the current director of the CIA downplayed the incident and said:
“[W]e are not in any way shape or form trying to thwart” the release of the torture report, Brennan said.
With regards to allegations that the CIA “hacked” into the Senate-used computer, Brennan said: “Nothing can be further from the truth.”
“We wouldn’t do that,” Brennan said. “That’s just beyond the scope of reason.”
“I am not taking it lightly,” Feinstein said.