U. S. considered taking info from protesters’ cellphones
WASHINGTON » Department of Homeland Security officers considered extracting data from cellphones seized from protesters in Portland, Ore., which would have been a remarkable violation of privacy and the right to peaceable assembly, House Democrats said Friday.
Lawmakers on the Intelligence Committee called a hearing Friday to examine the allegations of Brian Murphy, the former chief of the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, who has accused department leaders of suppressing intelligence warnings of violent white supremacy and Russian election interference.
But Rep. Adam Schiff of California, chairman of the committee, opened the hearing by revealing that it had found that Homeland Security intelligence analysts were sent to Portland and questioned demonstrators. The Federal Protective Service, the Homeland Security agency that protects federal property, requested that the analysts “extract data” from phones seized from the protesters without a search warrant, a request that went unfulfilled, Schiff said.
Joseph Maher, the acting chief of intelligence office, indicated that he had heard of the gathering effort, although he could not recall who in the agency had told him.
He said the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general was investigating.
Maher testified for the first time since his predecessor, Murphy, filed a whistle- blower complaint claiming department leadership blocked the release of intelligence warnings of violent racist extremists and Russia’s efforts to denigrate Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for president.
“Is Russia actively trying to denigrate Joe Biden?” Schiff asked.
“Yes,” said Maher, who assumed oversight of the intelligence office in August.
The intelligence branch of the Department of Homeland Security has come under fire about its efforts to gather information on protesters in Portland and the journalists covering the unrest. Murphy’s allegations that senior leadership of the department tried to distort assessments of threats facing the country has fueled criticism that an agency built to coordinate the federal government’s response to national emergencies has instead bent perceptions of those threats to the political whims of the president.
The intelligence committee has investigated the Department of Homeland Security
since it dispatched tactical teams during the summer to face protesters outside a federal courthouse in downtown Portland.
A central duty of the intelligence office is to gather data from the various federal agencies, as well as publicly available sources, and include it in unclassified intelligence bulletins used to inform state and local law enforcement agencies of emerging national security threats.
The Department of Homeland Security did not approve the request to glean data from protesters’ cellphones, but Democrats expressed concern.
“This is a situation where an element of the United States intelligence community, not law enforcement personnel, is being asked to use tools meant to counter terrorism or national security threats, not Americans who are exercising their constitutional rights,” said Rep. Jim Himes, D- Conn.
Maher took over the intelligence office after Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the department, demoted Murphy, whose analysts included the Twitter posts of journalists covering Portland, including those of a New York Times reporter, in intelligence bulletins.
Maher said including information on the journalists was “not an appropriate production of an intelligence report.”