Tag Archives: U.s. House Intelligence committee

U.S. House panel investigates DHS office over Portland, other protests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House Intelligence Committee launched an investigation on Monday into the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence office, including its actions in Portland, Oregon, and its involvement in other anti-racism protests across the country.

“The reporting regarding the monitoring of peaceful protesters, creating and disseminating intelligence reports about journalists and protesters, and potential exploitation of electronic devices is deeply troubling,” Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, wrote in a letter to top DHS officials.

The United States has seen largely peaceful protests nationwide since the death of George Floyd, a Black man, while in Minneapolis police custody in May. Protests in cities, including Portland, have at times erupted into arson and violence, and federal officers sent into the Northwestern city have repeatedly clashed with crowds targeting the federal courthouse there.

The probe shows that Democrats will use congressional authority to investigate efforts by the Trump administration to demonize protesters and deploy federal personnel in law enforcement operations in several cities despite opposition from local mayors and governors.

In his letter to acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and acting department intelligence chief Horace Jen, Schiff requested detailed intelligence reporting documents that informed a recommendation by the then-chief of the DHS intelligence operation on July 25 requesting that DHS reports on anarchist-related Portland protesters refer to them as “Violent Antifa Anarchists Inspired.”

The official who wrote the memo, acting DHS intelligence chief Brian Murphy, was subsequently transferred to a different job over the weekend.

In his letter to DHS, Schiff also requested that Jen, Murphy and several other DHS officials, including intelligence officials, give interviews to the committee this month.

Schiff said that if the department did not produce the witnesses and documents he requested, he would consider issuing subpoenas.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Mark Hosenball; Editing by Mary Milliken and Jonathan Oatis)

Top House Intelligence lawmaker: 2020 election ‘enormously vulnerable’

FILE PHOTO: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) speaks to reporters as he departs after hearing testimony from Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney of U.S. President Donald Trump, at a closed House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Jim Young

By Ginger Gibson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. presidential election in 2020 is “enormously vulnerable” to hacking and foreign influence, Representative Adam Schiff, the chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, said on Tuesday.

Schiff, responding to a reporter’s question at The Christian Science Monitor breakfast, warned that “the potential for mischief now is extreme” and said he is concerned about efforts to undermine U.S. democracy.

Schiff’s committee has been actively investigating the 2016 presidential campaign and allegations that the Russian government actively sought to meddle in the election to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump. Both Trump and the Kremlin have denied any meddling or collusion.

Schiff said during the midterm congressional elections in 2018, there was only a handful of incidents of so-called “spearfishing,” a form of hacking that involves trying to get someone to unknowingly hand over their passwords.

But he now thinks the efforts could be more aggressive.

He also said that he thinks Russia and other countries are capable of using “deep fake” technology.

He said outside actors could use the technology “to forge audio tapes, to forge video tapes, to make a far more disruptive impact.”

Conversely, he said he is also concerned that the possible proliferation of fake video or audio could make the public unwilling to believe real images or sounds.

“Even if you can disprove a fake video. If you can show it’s a forgery. The negative impression watching it … you can never erase.”

He said the concern is compounded by what he called Trump’s willingness to deny facts.

“An electorate that is being acclimated to the idea that we’re all entitled to different truths, that makes our democracy very vulnerable,” Schiff said.

(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Susan Thomas)