On Wednesday, New York Republican Congressman Peter King appeared on Fox News and blasted the intelligence community for canceling a briefing with the House Intelligence Committee. The briefing was scheduled in order to update the representatives on the alleged involvement of Russia interfering with the U.S. Presidential election. Rep. King said it’s “disgraceful” and it’s “almost as if people in the intelligence community are carrying out a disinformation campaign against Trump,” as CIA officials continue to refuse to talk to Congress.
“I find it extremely suspect that the CIA, which has become overtly politicized under Obama, is refusing to allow Congress to do its Constitutionally mandated oversight duty,” L. Todd Wood, columnist for The Washington Times and former special operations pilot, told American Military News.
“We don’t even know for sure if it really is the CIA or just certain employees pushing the Obama narrative,” Wood continued. “Obviously, whomever it is, is doing the bidding of the administration and the anti-Trump corrupt media. No one is even discussing the fact that the CIA has no jurisdiction within the United States. The FBI is the organization tasked with preventing espionage within the country. They are at odds with the CIA’s viewpoint.”
On Wednesday, King told Megyn Kelly on “The Kelly File” that lawmakers had not been provided with any evidence from the intelligence community substantiating the claim that Russia attempted to undermine the U.S. election.
“All we’ve heard from the intelligence community over the last several months is that they could not say that there was any attempt to undermine Hillary Clinton [or] to help Donald Trump,” King told Kelly. “The consensus was that there was an attempt by the Russians to put a cloud over the election, to create disunity. Well, that’s what’s happening right now, but it’s the intelligence community that’s doing it.”
“Somebody had the time to leak it to The Washington Post, but they don’t have the time to come to Congress,” Rep. King added. “It is the House Committee on Intelligence that has the absolutely jurisdiction over the CIA and the intelligence community. It is their job to come. They don’t have any choice.”
Congressman King told Megyn Kelly that nothing was told to Congress about the latest claims of Russia’s involvement.
“There was nothing at all, ever told to us,” King said, “in fact they said they couldn’t prove it, that there was an attempt to favor one candidate over the other. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said that publicly on Nov. 17.”
He added that this “violates all protocols” and that “it’s almost as if people in the intelligence community are carrying out a disinformation campaign against the president-elect of the United States.”
“It’s absolutely disgraceful and if they’re not doing it, then it must be someone in the House or the Senate who’s leaking false information and there should be a full investigation of this,” he added.
“Ninety-nine percent of the people in the CIA are great,” King concluded. “There’s somebody here, though, that’s behind something that’s totally irresponsible.”
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