Dems Ask FBI Director to Brief House on Foreign Efforts to Upend November Election

WASHINGTON – Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have called on FBI Director Christopher Wray to provide a classified briefing before the August recess on how the agency is combating an active foreign interference campaign they say is targeting both Congress and the presidential election in November.

“We are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election in November,” the Democrats wrote in a brief and somewhat cryptic letter bearing the words “unclassified when separated from attachment” across the top.

In addition to Pelosi, the signers include Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner, D-Va..

The letter was sent last week to Wray and other top intelligence agency chiefs, including Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and Director of the National Security Agency Gen. Paul Nakasone.

“Given the seriousness and specificity of these threats, as members of congressional leadership and the congressional intelligence committees we believe it is imperative that the FBI provide a classified defensive briefing to all members of Congress and that the briefing draw on all-source intelligence information and analysis, consistent with due regard for the protection of sensitive intelligence sources and methods,” the lawmakers wrote.

Last week presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said he’d begun receiving intelligence briefings and had seen signs that Russia and others were continuing to interfere in the U.S. election process.

“We know from before, and I guarantee you I know now because now I get briefings again. The Russians are still engaged, trying to delegitimize our electoral process,” Biden said.

“China and others are engaged as well in activities designed for us to lose confidence in the outcome,” he added.