WASHINGTON - Top US intelligence officials will provide in-person briefings to congressional intelligence committees on foreign efforts to meddle in the 2020 election, after all, having previously said they would communicate mainly in writing, senators said on Wednesday.
The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committees said in a statement that John Ratcliffe, the former Republican Congressman who is President Donald Trump’s new Director of National Intelligence (DNI), had confirmed that their committee would continue receiving in-person briefings.
In late August, a DNI statement said that it would stop in-person election-related briefings because it had concerns information had been leaked to the public, a plan that drew immediate criticism from Democrats.
Ratcliffe in a statement said in-person election intelligence briefings would continue for intelligence committees in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, but not for the full Congress.
“To protect sources and methods, the IC will not provide all-member briefings, but we will work to provide appropriate updates primarily through written finished intelligence products,” Ratcliffe said.
Multiple reviews by U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia acted to boost Trump’s 2016 campaign and undermine his rival, Hillary Clinton. Trump has long bristled at that finding, which Russia denies.
House intelligence panel chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, said lawmakers were working to confirm a date and time for briefings, which he said in a statement “must not obviate the need to keep all Members and the American people appropriately and accurately informed about the active threats to the November election.”
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