Political Quotes

“I intend to object to any unanimous consent request at the present time relating to the nomination of Courtney Elwood of Virginia to be the general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency. I will object because the CIA has still not responded to my letters from April 14, 2014; and April 5, 2017, requesting declassification of two congressional notifications, CNs, about whistleblower communications. In 2014, the inspector general of the Intelligence Community issued two CNs about whistleblower communications. The first, sent on March 28, 2014, had the unclassified subject line ``Whistleblower Communications.'' The second, sent on March 31, 2014, had the unclassified subject line ``Whistleblower Communications-- Clarification.'' Both documents were classified Secret/NOFORN. I requested that the CNs be declassified as soon as possible. More than 3 years have passed since my initial request, and I still have not received declassified versions of the documents or an explanation of why the documents have not been declassified. The information contained in the two CNs raises serious policy implications, as well as potential Constitutional separation-of-powers issues. The CNs do not appear to contain any information about sources or methods, and there is a strong public interest in their content. As a matter of respect, for a coequal branch of government, my declassification request should have been processed in a timely manner.…”