Sen. Ron Wyden Sends Chilling Letter to CIA
Not great. Really not great.
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Earlier today, while we were all understandably occupied with the contents of the Epstein Files, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon sent the following public letter to John Ratcliffe, Trump’s CIA Director:
I don’t pretend to know the exact nature of what this letter is regarding, but I’m not gonna lie to you, folks: it has me worried. I am worried.
If there were no other context clues available, I would still be worried. It is extremely rare for any U.S. senator to send a letter like this to the head of the CIA and make it public.
But what makes it even more chilling for me is that it’s Ron Wyden. He is not a performative lawmaker. He doesn’t do theatrics. It’s quite chilling to me that he, specifically, sent this letter.
It may be addressed to John Ratcliffe, but the audience is us, the American people. He is signaling to us that something is deeply wrong about a classified matter.
What immediately came to my mind is a report from The Wall Street Journal on Monday that Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, has been hiding a whistleblower complaint about her regarding a matter that is so highly classified that few are aware of its contents.
WSJ reported that Gabbard has basically been stonewalling disclosure of the memo to congressional leadership for six months, and there’s been intense wrangling over how to navigate the power struggle given the highly sensitive nature of the complaint:
Amid the limbo, the Gabbard complaint has been locked in a safe in the office, a person familiar with the matter said. Asked about the safe, the inspector-general representative said: “Some complaints involve exceptionally sensitive materials necessitating special handling and storage requirements. This case is one of them.”
This morning, the Associated Press reported that a memo was sent on Tuesday to the chairs and ranking members of the the House and Senate intelligence committees, notifying them that the whistleblower complaint is ready for restricted review by the Gang of Eight, the name for the congressional group that’s notified on especially serious matters of national security.
The Gang of Eight includes the aforementioned intelligence committee members, the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, the Senator Majority Leader, and the Senate Minority Leader.
Obviously, it remains classified, must be returned according to strict protocol, and no notes may be taken.
But riddle me this: why would Ron Wyden, of all people, send the above letter to the CIA about “serious concerns” and make it public if the Gang of Eight are already scheduled to review the whistleblower complaint, which would presumably alleviate the present tension?
Maybe it’s unrelated. It could be a coincidence. But then again, we’d be back at square one with Ron Wyden sending the letter in the first place for reasons still unknown, and that remains scary.
For her part, Gabbard has denied any wrongdoing, maintains the whistleblower complaint is without merit, and further claims that the delay in full disclosure to congressional leaders, however restricted, was due to “extensive legal review” and the recent government shutdown.
Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s intelligence committee, seemed skeptical in response to Gabbard’s excuses. Here’s what he told reporters, including Andrew Klepper, the journalist who wrote the AP’s report this morning:
“It took the Gang of Eight six months of negotiation with the director of national intelligence to share that whistleblower complaint. This is in direct contradiction to what Gabbard testified during her confirmation hearings — that she would protect whistleblowers and share the information of timely matter.”
That’s the other thing that doesn’t make sense to me: Sen. Wyden is a member of the Senate’s intelligence committee, but normally, for a letter as severe and public as the one above, it would be the ranking member (Sen. Warner) who sends it.
I could be overthinking things, but it makes me wonder if Senate Democrats huddled over this and thought: let’s have Wyden send it, so the public understands this is the furthest thing from us fucking around.
So, to recap: we don’t yet know if Sen. Wyden’s letter is related to the swirling controversy around Gabbard, but we know that whatever it is, the stakes are pretty damn serious.
We shall see.
This is ALL so flipping exhausting. This regime is a completely insane clown show while @ the same time, a seriously demented & dangerous group of sycophants. I long for the days when it wasn’t a part time job to monitor & resist this shitshow of fascists. I’m old. I’m tired, & yet I’ll fight on, since democracy, by its very definition, has to be participatory, it’s worth it, & the stakes are too damn high. Thank you for keeping us informed, Charlotte.
Wyden had been doggedly following the money on the Epstein Files. Might (also) be a connection.