(Bloomberg) -- Democrats lambasted a decision by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to no longer provide lawmakers with in-person, verbal briefings on election security ahead of November’s vote, which President Donald Trump said came after “leaks.”
“This is a shocking abdication of its lawful responsibility to keep the Congress currently informed, and a betrayal of the public’s right to know how foreign powers are trying to subvert our democracy,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement with Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
The ODNI, led since May by John Ratcliffe, will instead provide written briefings to Congress in the leadup to the Nov. 3 vote.
Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, called the move “a shameless partisan manipulation to protect the personal interests of President Trump.”
“This is not how democracy works,” the former vice president said in a sharply-worded statement. “But it is how American national security and sovereignty are violated.” Biden said Trump’s foreign policy was “a gift to the Kremlin.”
Trump addressed the development during brief remarks while observing damage from Hurricane Laura in southeast Texas, saying Ratcliffe wanted to reduce “leaks” coming from Capitol Hill.
“Ratcliffe brought information into the committee and the information leaked,” Trump said. “Whether it was ‘Shifty Schiff’ or anybody else, they leaked the information before it gets in and what’s even worse is they leaked the wrong information. He got tired of it and so he wants to do it in a different form.”
On CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, Schiff said it was a “lie” that Democrats had leaked classified information provided in briefings by the ODNI. He said the Trump administration was trying to quash questioning by lawmakers about Russian interference in the U.S. electoral process.
The move to restrict briefings comes as congressional Democrats are pushing for more funding for election security and for sanctions against Russia for meddling in the 2016 election.
‘Politicized Effort’
“This is shameful and -- coming only weeks before the election -- demonstrates that the Trump administration is engaged in a politicized effort to withhold election-related information from Congress and the American people,” the Democrats said.
The ODNI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a former Republican congressman from North Carolina, said he’d spoken with Ratcliffe, who told him that he would give “full briefings” to Congress but not “oral briefings.”
“He’s going to ultimately give full briefings in terms of not oral briefings, but full intel briefings,” Meadows said.
“The last time they gave briefings, members went out and talked to the press and disclosed information they shouldn’t have disclosed. And so he’s going to make sure that there’s proper tools for oversight and make sure they contain it in a way that doesn’t jeopardize sources and methods.”
Lawmakers heard Friday from two Secretaries of State that election hacks are expected and ongoing.
Rattling the Doorknobs
Michael Adams, Kentucky’s Republican Secretary of State, testified to the House Homeland Security Committee that there have been attempts to disrupt his state’s election systems.
“We’ve not been breached, but there has been a rattling of our doorknob, I’ll put it that way,” Adams said, without providing details.
A top U.S. counterintelligence official, William Evanina, said in a report this month that Russia, China and Iran are among the foreign powers working in various ways to sway U.S. voters this year.
Pelosi and Schiff said they expect the administration and the intelligence community to keep Congress “fully and accurately informed,” and would consider “tools” available to “compel compliance.”
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