The Palm Beach Post

CIA nominee agrees: Russia hacked to aid Trump

- By Eileen Sullivan and Deb Riechmann Associated Press

WASHINGTON — D o n a l d Trump’s choice to run the CIA told Congress on Thursday that he accepts the findings in an intelligen­ce assessment that Russia interfered in the U.S. election with the goal of helping Trump win, even though the president-elect has been skeptical of some of the report’s conclusion­s.

“Everything I’ve seen suggests to me that the report has an analytical product that is sound,” said Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican congressma­n. His comments struck a different tone than those of his future boss, who called the focus on Russia and the election a “political witch hunt” before he was even briefed on the findings.

A s h e a d o f t h e C I A , Pompeo would be responsibl­e for bringing to Trump intelligen­ce assessment­s the president may find politicall­y unappealin­g, including additional informatio­n on Russia’s interferen­ce with the American democratic process. Pompeo promised senators on the intelligen­ce committee that he would neverthele­ss do so.

“My obligation as director of CIA is to tell every policymake­r the facts as best the intelligen­ce agency has developed them,” said Pompeo, a member of the House intelligen­ce committee.

Trump has been critical of the intelligen­ce assessment that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other political sites and that Moscow’s aim was to get Trump elected. This week he said intelligen­ce officials might be to blame for the leak of an addendum to the Russia assessment that was a summary of unverified claims that Russia had obtained compromisi­ng informatio­n about Trump’s sexual and financial activities.

The top U.S. intelligen­ce official, James Clapper, said he did not think the disclosure­s came from intelligen­ce agencies, and Clapper said late Wednesday that he told Trump the U.S. intelligen­ce community “has not made any judgment that the informatio­n in this document is reliable, and we did not rely upon it in any way.”

Sen. Angus King, a Maine independen­t, asked Pompeo to comment on the unverified but “very serious allegation­s” about Trump’s ties with Russia.

“I share your view that these are unsubstant­iated media reports,” Pompeo said, adding that he thought the leaks themselves were “intensely serious.”

Senators separately questioned Pompeo about classified issues after the public hearing.

On other issues, Pompeo said he will uphold the law and not direct the CIA to revert to using torture tac- tics to interrogat­e suspected terrorists. He also said that while he has been critical of the Obama administra­tion’s deal with Iran on nuclear weapons, he would carry out the policy as it stands.

Pompeo was a vocal member of the partisan House committee set up to investigat­e the deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, which occurred while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. He told the committee that he understand­s that as CIA director he would have to make the transition from being a partisan, policymaki­ng lawmaker to an objective intelligen­ce collector.

Adding a little drama to the hearing, the lights went out when the top Democrat on the committee mentioned Russia. The hearing was moved to a different building.

 ?? RICCARDO SAVI / SIPA USA ?? U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., testifies Thursday before the Senate Intelligen­ce Committee in Washington about his nomination to be the director of the Central Intelligen­ce Agency.
RICCARDO SAVI / SIPA USA U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., testifies Thursday before the Senate Intelligen­ce Committee in Washington about his nomination to be the director of the Central Intelligen­ce Agency.

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