Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Wednesday criticized the FBI for lack of transparency with Congress, saying that “it is not tolerable” to have an agency that does not answer questions from lawmakers about its actions. His comments came a day after he criticized FBI director Christopher Wray for failing to answer written questions from lawmakers at hearings involving FBI witnesses in the past four years.
“It is not tolerable to have a government agency, let alone a law enforcement agency, which does not answer questions for years about its conduct,” Whitehouse, a Democrat, told anchor Elaine Quijano of “Red & Blue”.
If the FBI does not improve its process of responding to questions from the legislature, Whitehouse said it would consider retaining appropriations and delaying nominees, as well as other “legislative persuasion” tools.
Whitehouse questioned Wray about the FBI’s responsiveness during a Senate hearing on Tuesday about the Capitol Attack. In response, Wray cited an “elaborate interagency process to answer questions”, but said he “would do what he could to improve the process”. He said he was as “frustrated” as lawmakers and agreed that “we need to improve”.
When asked if he has faith that the FBI will change its practices, Whitehouse said to Quijano, “No, they will have to prove it to me.”
“I have a demonstrated record of [a] categorical blocking of information, “he said.” And I know why we just received 800 questions answered on behalf of the appointed attorney general [Merrick] Garland, what are they able to do if they want to. ”
Wray testified on Tuesday as part of the Senate investigation in preparation for the attack on the Capitol. In late February, the former Capitol Police chief blamed the intelligence community in his testimony, saying that his strength was prepared to deal with the number of people they should expect. The former Chamber weapons sergeant testified that daily intelligence reports between 4 and 6 January “predicted the chance of civil disobedience or imprisonment during the protests as remote or unlikely”.
The former House and Senate arms sergeant said he had not seen a report from an FBI field office in Norfolk, Virginia, alerting police officers to an anonymous social media topic that threatens war on Capitol Hill. The former Capitol Police chief said the report reached the police the day before the attack, but said he had not seen the raw data.
“Intelligence didn’t get where it needed to be,” said the Capitol Police chief, adding that the January 5 report was sent by email, when it should have been communicated by “a phone call or something.”
Whitehouse said it is still unclear how to improve the intelligence gathering process to prevent similar incidents from occurring.
“I suspect there will be a much broader solution than just, like, a specific little silver bullet,” he said, adding, “It is very difficult when you are putting loads of information into a fusion center that needs to go through them. , rate, analyze and find out what it means and restrict it so that the consumer of these services can actually use it to solve the problem. ”
“But certainly when an FBI report from Norfolk says there is going to be a war and that the information does not reach decision makers who protect the Capitol, something went wrong,” he added.
But the senator said that despite the communication problems, he feels safe on Capitol Hill.
“In fact, I would like to see the barbed wire fall off as quickly as possible,” he said. “As soon as security professionals present their plan – it is not a great appearance for our great Republic to have its capital wrapped in barbed wire.”
Stefan Becket and Nicole Sganga contributed reporting.