Briefings change challenged

Democrats reject written security updates as Trump boon

WASHINGTON — Racing the political clock, frustrated Democrats on Sunday searched for a way to force the Trump administration to continue briefing Congress in person about foreign attempts to interfere in the November election.

The director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, said most briefings on what the administration knows about efforts to influence the vote will now be given to Congress in writing. In the past, delivering “all-member” briefings in person, he said, has resulted in “leaks” for political purposes within moments.

As Ratcliffe blamed a “pandemic” of leaks in defending his restriction, Democrats criticized the decision as doing President Donald Trump’s bidding.

“A falsehood, yet again another lie by the president,” responded Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Schiff and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the move “a shocking abdication” of “lawful responsibility” to keep Congress informed.

Ratcliffe said those lawmakers who are “entitled to the briefings and classified information will still get that information,” but that the briefings would be “primarily in writing.”

“What we won’t be doing is all-member briefings, to all members of the House and all members of the Senate,” he said.

Ratcliffe appeared to leave

the door open to in-person briefings for House members specifically involved with intelligence. But it was unclear which lawmakers would receive the material and how giving them the assessments in writing would cut down on leaking.

There is little time for Democrats to challenge the decision in the shadow of the Nov. 3 election and few options to compel the administration to change course, though it mustered plenty of anger.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden blasted the administration for trying to hide well-documented efforts by Russia to help Trump politically. The decision, Biden said in a statement, shows that Trump is “hoping [Russian President] Vladimir Putin will once more boost his candidacy and cover his horrific failures to lead our country through the multiple crises we are facing.”

Biden called the move “a shameless partisan manipulation to protect the personal interests of President Trump.”

Schiff said his committee could demand that Ratcliffe or other intelligence officials testify under oath, but that decision would be made by Pelosi, D-Calif.

An official with Schiff’s committee said Ratcliffe’s decision was unexpected because Ratcliffe’s office earlier had reached out to schedule an in-person briefing to the committee on Sept. 17. A room on Capitol Hill had already been reserved, according to the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We will compel the intelligence community to give Congress the information that we need,” Schiff said.

Schiff suggested Ratcliffe is trying to evade questions about foreign influence on the 2020 election. “You can state things in a written report that are not correct, and you can’t be subject to questioning about it,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

RUSSIA DOWNPLAYED

Ratcliffe, a former congressman from Texas who took office in May, insisted that China is a graver threat to election security than Russia.

He said he took action on the briefings after members of Congress leaked classified information “for political purposes” within minutes of a July 31 meeting in which he briefed lawmakers and asked them to keep it private. He portrayed those leaks as skewing the threat narrative.

Earlier this month, the nation’s counterintelligence chief, William Evanina, issued a statement saying U.S. intelligence officials believe Russia is using various methods to denigrate Biden and that people linked to Putin are boosting Trump’s reelection bid.

U.S. officials also believe China does not want Trump to win a second term and has accelerated its criticism of the White House, Evanina wrote.

“I don’t mean to minimize Russia — they are a serious national security threat,” Ratcliffe said Sunday. “But day in, day out, the threats that we face from China are significantly greater.”

He added, “Anyone who says otherwise is just politicizing intelligence for their own narrative.”

Ratcliffe alleged that China has mounted an influence campaign at U.S. federal, state and local levels in a bid to sway U.S. policy. “They use middlemen and proxies to try and influence and ultimately blackmail in some cases or extort elected officials, business leaders and others to support pro-China policies,” he said.

“They’re playing in the election or expressing preferences for Vice President Biden over President Trump because President Trump has been tough on China,” Ratcliffe said.

SENATORS REACT

Trump weighed in Saturday, saying “Ratcliffe brought information into the committee and the information leaked.” He said Ratcliffe “got tired” of the leaking, though he did not offer details to support his statement.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a former Democratic candidate for president, Sunday derided Ratcliffe on Twitter as a “Trump stooge” who won’t provide briefings to Congress “because he’s worried Trump will throw a tantrum about Russia helping him get re-elected.”

“You’re supposed to keep us informed,” she wrote. “Do your job or resign.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said, “This is not where you cut off Congress from getting the information. That’s what happened in 2016, there wasn’t enough information out there. Now we know. We’ve learned a lesson.”

The need to subpoena Ratcliffe, she said, “is crazy. We are just a few months out of a major election.”

The acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee indicated the Senate may still have some access to some briefings. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the “grotesque criminal misconduct” of leaking does not release intelligence agencies from fulfilling their legal requirements to keep Congress informed.

It was unclear whether that means the Senate will receive in-person briefings. A spokesman for Rubio said he would not elaborate.

Independent Maine Sen. Angus King, a member of the Senate committee, said the idea that the national intelligence director’s office would stop briefing Congress on foreign threats to the U.S. election is “an outrage” and that written updates were “flatly insufficient.”

“America’s election — indeed, our foundation of democracy itself — is under threat as we face weaponized disinformation from global foes around the planet,” King said in a statement. “To stifle and limit the American peoples’ awareness of this fact cannot be explained — or allowed.”

Ratcliffe recalled that in his confirmation hearings he said he would “do everything I could to protect the unauthorized disclosure of classified information — allowing people to leak it for political purposes.”

“I’m going to continue to keep Congress informed,” Ratcliffe said. “But we’ve had a pandemic of information being leaked out of the intelligence community. And I’m going to take the measures to make sure that stops.”