Cmte Intelligence (D) RSS Articles

Himes Statement on Intelligence Community Led Election Briefing

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, DC -- U.S. Representative Jim Himes (D-CT), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today released the following statement:

“This week, the House Intelligence Committee received a bipartisan, classified briefing from senior officials in the intelligence community on the threat of foreign interference in our upcoming elections. This is the 5th briefing the Committee has received in advance of the 2026 election. We continue to see nothing to contradict the longstanding assessment by the IC that no adversary has attempted to interfere with the physical infrastructure or vote counting of our elections.

“While the American public should be reassured that our elections and the results are safe, they should also remain on high alert for the spread of disinformation meant to impact the vote, particularly with the advances in AI and other technology.

“We are grateful to the professionals within the IC who are working hard to ensure that our elections remain secure. The Committee will stay in close communication with IC leadership and their election leads to ensure that we are fully informed of any changes in the IC’s assessment regarding foreign threats to the election.”

Himes Statement on Politically Driven DOJ Charges Against Intelligence Officials

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, DC -- U.S. Representative Jim Himes (D-CT), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today released the following statement:

“Donald Trump and his allies have made a habit of siccing their DOJ on political opponents, but they are sinking to new depths with this attack on career intelligence officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides. These charges are not only clearly designed to punish dedicated professionals, they also ensure that an already demoralized IC workforce remains afraid of political retribution for working on sensitive issues.

“Doubly concerning is that FBI is apparently conducting an ‘ongoing investigation’ into its own Foreign Influence Task Force. Director Patel’s dismantling of FITF made America less safe from foreign influence. National security officials should be able to take on a hard mission without fear that they will be later investigated and prosecuted for doing their jobs.”

Himes, Thompson Demand DHS Election Security Briefing

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

(WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, announced they sent a letter to Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin to demand an urgent briefing on how the Department of Homeland Security is sharing election-related threat intelligence with state and local election officials and how it is helping them with election security efforts.

The Ranking Members highlighted how the DHS components responsible for engaging with state and local governments to share information about election-related threats— the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A)— have had their workforces slashed by the Trump administration and their election security efforts curtailed.

“We are very concerned that these staffing and strategic changes have undermined DHS’s ability to effectively partner with state and local election officials and to share information about threats to the upcoming election. State and local election officials are equally concerned,” the Ranking Members wrote. “On one hand, they have so drastically lost trust in the Department that they are reluctant to share the threat information they observe. On the other, they have no confidence that DHS will share timely threat intelligence with them. This critical information sharing is not possible to replicate without the full, good-faith participation of federal and non-federal partners.”

“State and local election officials are under tremendous pressure this election cycle. In addition to the administration’s attempts to police voter rolls and impose new election rules, election officials are facing threats to their physical safety. Just this week, several election offices across the country were sent suspicious substances. We must ensure that DHS is providing state and local election officials the support necessary to carry out their critical mission.”

Ahead of Midterm Elections, Warner, Padilla, Himes and Morelle Urge Leading Tech Companies to Not Detract From Efforts to Ensure Elections Are Free, Fair, and Secure

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Alex Padilla (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, and Representatives Jim Himes (CT-04), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Joe Morelle (NY-25), Ranking Member of the House Administration Committee, urged leading technology companies to ensure their platforms and tools help protect the integrity of our elections and support free, fair, and secure midterms.

In a letter to the CEOs of Adobe, Alphabet, Anthropic, Black Forest Labs, Bluesky, Discord, ElevenLabs, LinkedIn, Meta, Microsoft, Midjourney, Mistral, OpenAI, Perplexity, Pinterest, Reddit, Reflection AI, Rumble, Snap, SpaceX, Stability AI, Telegram, Thinking Machines Labs, TikTok U.S., and Truth Social, the legislators wrote, “Your platforms play a significant and important role in sharing, disseminating, and in some cases generating information about those elections. Much of the United States—and the world—searches for and receives information from American search engines, American chatbots, and American social media platforms. These connections create opportunities for Americans to come together and debate important topics and share information. But they also create vectors for foreign adversaries and domestic actors to easily and quickly reach—and manipulate—large audiences.”

The legislators explained that their social media platforms and AI tools can quickly generate, execute and disseminate influence campaigns that used to take hundreds of hours of labor. As Americans increasingly turn to AI tools to inform themselves about political candidates, ballot issues, and the logistics of voting, AI tools could be used to spread inaccurate, outdated, manipulated, or biased information.

The legislators reminded the CEOs that many of their companies have committed to ensuring they were not complicit in harming elections or hampering the ability of Americans to vote. Additionally, while many have also committed to authenticating and labeling digital media and adopted policies to increase the odds that users see the most reliable voting and election information, there have been demonstrated inconsistencies among the companies regarding the effectiveness and applicability of their respective policies.

“Unfortunately, there are concerning signs of backsliding on some of your commitments to protecting elections from misuse of your products. These signs are particularly alarming because they come at a time when the capabilities of malign actors are growing in scale and sophistication and our elections are under attack from multiple directions… Public reporting indicates that Russia continues to undermine confidence in U.S. elections through disinformation campaigns executed directly on many of your platforms; though such efforts clearly violate your terms of service, some of your companies have not quickly or consistently removed such content,” wrote the legislators.

They continued, “Equally alarming is that some of your AI chatbots have an unacceptably high error rate when responding to queries about election and voting processes, subjecting users to confusing or inaccurate answers that could result in voter disenfranchisement. And some of your content removal and fact-checking policies are woefully insufficient or even nonexistent, allowing false, manipulated, and misleading content to continue to circulate on your platforms unchecked. In the past, the Federal Trade Commission has notably pursued enforcement actions against companies that don’t live up to the self-regulatory commitments they make, including in a 2012 case against Google for failing to follow the National Advertising Initiative code of conduct.”

The legislators then recommended a list of concrete actions the companies could take, including removing all demonstrably false information related to election and voting logistics once they find it, using independent fact checkers, regularly updating automated tools to review and remove or reduce the reach of false election-related content, and directing all users to authoritative election-related resources.

In regards to generative AI, the legislators recommended actions such as making sure AI-generated responses to questions about election and voting logistics source their information from state and local election offices and trusted news organizations, incorporating disclaimers and flags in AI-generated responses if election and voting logistics may be outdated, and making sure that all AI-generated images and videos are labeled and can be identified as AI-generated content both by users and by technology-based detection tools.

“Again, we strongly urge you to enhance—not reduce—your election security efforts in the final days before the 2026 midterms and to maintain strong efforts in this area on an ongoing basis ahead of future elections as well,” the legislators concluded.

The full letter is available here and below.

We write to urge you to adopt policies and programs that ensure your platforms contribute to, and do not detract from, the effort to ensure that America’s elections are free, fair, and secure.

As the CEOs of America’s largest technology companies, you are aware of the great responsibility that your companies hold in America’s elections. Your platforms play a significant and important role in sharing, disseminating, and in some cases generating information about those elections. Much of the United States—and the world—searches for and receives information from American search engines, American chatbots, and American social media platforms. These connections create opportunities for Americans to come together and debate important topics and share information. But they also create vectors for foreign adversaries and domestic actors to easily and quickly reach—and manipulate—large audiences.

Moreover, American companies’ AI offerings offer both substantial benefits and substantial risks. Your tools can quickly generate, execute, and disseminate entire influence campaigns. While it previously would take hundreds of manhours to achieve such effects, your tools speed and streamline efforts to create material that are inaccurate or false, but nevertheless convincing. Increasingly, some American voters turn to AI tools to research candidates and ballot issues and seek information about voting logistics, increasing the risk of exposure to inaccuracies, outdated or manipulated information, or biased summaries.

Many of your companies have demonstrated a commitment over the past decade to ensuring that your platforms are not used to harm elections or hamper the ability of Americans to vote. After the 2016 elections, many of your companies turned particular focus to identifying and eliminating coordinated inauthentic behavior on your platforms and establishing searchable archives for election ads. With the rise of powerful generative AI tools, your companies further committed to authenticating and labeling digital media, including by joining the Coalition for Content Provenance & Authenticity (C2PA) and signing the Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections. Many of your companies have also adopted policies seeking to increase the odds that your users are exposed to only the most authoritative and reliable voting and election information. We believe maintaining and enhancing these kinds of commitments is more important than ever heading into the final days of the 2026 midterm election cycle.

Unfortunately, there are concerning signs of backsliding on some of your commitments to protecting elections from misuse of your products. These signs are particularly alarming because they come at a time when the capabilities of malign actors are growing in scale and sophistication and our elections are under attack from multiple directions. Despite many of your companies having policies prohibiting deception and requiring the labeling of AI-generated content, there have been demonstrated inconsistencies regarding the effectiveness and applicability of your policies. In many cases, some of your social media platforms and AI tools still allow for the creation and/or dissemination of false, synthetic, misleading, or inauthentic election content in direct violation of your policies. Public reporting indicates that Russia continues to undermine confidence in U.S. elections through disinformation campaigns executed directly on many of your platforms; though such efforts clearly violate your terms of service, some of your companies have not quickly or consistently removed such content.

Equally alarming is that some of your AI chatbots have an unacceptably high error rate when responding to queries about election and voting processes, subjecting users to confusing or inaccurate answers that could result in voter disenfranchisement. And some of your content removal and fact-checking policies are woefully insufficient or even nonexistent, allowing false, manipulated, and misleading content to continue to circulate on your platforms unchecked. In the past, the Federal Trade Commission has notably pursued enforcement actions against companies that don’t live up to the self-regulatory commitments they make, including in a 2012 case against Google for failing to follow the National Advertising Initiative code of conduct.

Information related to election and voting logistics—a category that includes registration deadlines, polling hours and locations, requirements about voter ID, rules for mail or provisional voting and ballots, and voter eligibility—is information that is integral to the functioning of our democracy. When objectively false information about election administration is introduced and disseminated with the intent to deceive or to discourage prospective voters, your companies must have robust and consistently applied rules to differentiate that misinformation from ordinary political speech about elections and to take steps to remove that misinformation.

We continue to strongly encourage you to take the actions and adopt the best practices outlined in Senator Warner’s March 2026 letter on anticipating, identifying, and countering malicious manipulated media. These best practices are important steps to protecting vulnerable communities, public trust, and democratic institutions.

We also encourage you to adopt specific policies and actions regarding election-related content. To the extent that your company offers social media or other content access or distribution platforms, we strongly encourage you to take the following actions to keep your platforms free from coordinated inauthentic behavior and election-related misinformation and disinformation:

Immediately remove all demonstrably false information related to election and voting logistics upon becoming aware of it—including information about where and how to register to vote, and where and how to vote.
Support dedicated reporting tools on your platforms for election officials to report examples of false election information.
Improve the speed by which your tools detect and remove false information related to voting logistics and political and election-related violence.
- When such tools are used to detect false, misleading, and inauthentic content, ensure that the tools are kept updated, and that their findings are promptly subject to human review and action to remove violative content.
Utilize independent fact checkers in addition to internal fact-checking teams and regularly updated automated tools to review and remove, or at least reduce the reach, impressions, and discoverability of, false, misleading, or inauthentic election-related content.
Engage independent media and civil society organizations to assist in efforts to verify media, generate authenticated media, and educate the public.
Notify users when they have engaged with election-related content that has subsequently been determined to be false, misleading, or inauthentic.
Affirmatively direct all users to authoritative election-related resources, especially if users were determined to have engaged with false, misleading, or inauthentic election-related content.
Immediately remove all content advocating for violence of any kind upon becoming aware of it, but particularly content advocating political and/or election-related violence.
Publish regular reports detailing efforts to identify and remove false election-related information, election-related misinformation and disinformation, election and political violence, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.

To the extent your company offers generative AI products, we strongly encourage you to take the following actions to keep your AI systems and tools safe as they engage with and generate election-related information:

Ensure that AI-generated responses to questions about election and voting logistics pull only from highly authoritative sources and do not pull from social media platforms or other user-generated content. Authoritative resources should be limited to state and local election offices and top trusted news organizations, as well as civil society organizations aggregating content from these other authoritative and reliable sources.
Provide additional resources to pre-deployment guardrail testing for AI-generated election-related content, as well as ongoing reviewing of model performance.
Strengthen guardrails to prevent AI systems from responding to queries with material that can be used in election disinformation campaigns.
Implement continuous auditing until the November federal elections, and for an appropriate time as ballot counting, litigation, or challenges to the results remain ongoing, for accuracy and objectiveness in AI-generated responses to election-related questions, including mechanisms by which users can report inaccurate answers.
Incorporate disclaimers and flags in AI-generated responses if election and voting logistics may be outdated, and direct users to authoritative resources.
Provide inline citations and links for all election-related information provided in an AI-generated response.
Encourage users to independently verify AI-generated answers to questions about election and voting by reviewing authoritative and reliable resources.
Ensure that all AI-generated images and videos are consistently clearly labeled and can be identified as AI-generated content both by the human eye and by technology-based detection tools.
Ensure that election-related responses provided in languages other than English are accurate and reliable.

Many of you have announced content partnerships with highly reliable sources to ensure that your AI and social media platforms only surface the most accurate and reliable information related to election and voting logistics and election results. We strongly support this practice and encourage you to ensure that your platforms properly identify and curate the authoritative and reliable resources from which they pull from on election-related topics to avoid sharing outdated, inaccurate, unreliable, or otherwise incorrect information on this critical topic area that you cannot afford to get wrong. In addition, we urge you to be mindful of Spanish and other foreign language content, which plays a large and important role in the U.S. electorate but often receives less attention and response than online English-language election misinformation.

We also encourage you to be transparent about the efforts that your companies are making on these fronts. Public reporting indicates that in recent years, several of your companies have conducted layoffs, including of personnel on the trust and safety teams responsible for ensuring your platforms’ integrity when it comes to election topics. Firing such personnel after there has been demonstrated evidence and indicators of orchestrated and coordinate foreign misinformation operations exposes your platform to various integrity threats and is cause for serious concern.

Particularly as the 2026 midterm elections are officially underway, your companies should be increasing the staffing and capabilities of your respective trust and safety teams, especially those teams responsible for avoiding platform exploitation relating to election topics. Refusing to grow and expand your election integrity teams—and even shrinking these teams—does not support your stated commitments to countering harmful election content and suggests to bad actors that your policies are not enforceable.

Finally, third-party researchers play a critical role in studying and producing independent reviews of social media platforms and AI systems and tools, particularly as it pertains to auditing the effectiveness of your trust and safety policies. Your companies should collaborate with third-party researchers by granting them access to your products and data, including data on how users are engaging with your platforms on election-related issues, and allow for the testing of your platforms and AI tools.

Again, we strongly urge you to enhance—not reduce—your election security efforts in the final days before the 2026 midterms and to maintain strong efforts in this area on an ongoing basis ahead of future elections as well. We thank you for your attention to these important measures and we look forward to hearing about your efforts in these areas.

Ranking Members Himes, Meeks, Smith: Trump Has Abandoned Ukraine; Congress Must Act

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, DC --U.S. Representatives Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee; and Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a statement following a call between President Zelenskyy and a bipartisan group of Members of Congress.

“The United States Congress stands strongly and unequivocally with Ukraine. Russia's continued campaign of war crimes and its slaughtering of innocent civilians, aided by the Trump Administration’s pro-Putin agenda, demands urgent and forceful action from Congress to reaffirm that support.

“While Donald Trump has made clear that he is abandoning Ukraine in favor of Putin, we remain committed to working urgently with Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to advance legislation to compel the Trump Administration to deliver to Ukraine the security, economic, and intelligence support it needs to defend its people from Putin’s brutal and illegal invasion. We are also committed to working together to advance legislation to fix the Graham Act and prevent President Trump from unilaterally importing Russian energy and undermining U.S. national security interests.

“The Trump Administration has shown it cannot be trusted to do the right thing in support of Ukraine. Sapping Ukraine’s ability to defend itself will not result in a just and durable peace and is therefore both immoral and counter to the interests of the United States and our partners and allies. Congress must act and do what this administration refuses to do: Stand up for Ukraine, defend America's interests, and make clear that autocratic aggression will not be rewarded.”

Himes Statement on U.S. Support for Ukraine

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, DC -- U.S. Representative Jim Himes (D-CT), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today released the following statement:

“Over the past several days, Ukraine has once again endured massive strikes conducted by Russia against its population centers and energy grid, strikes that are carried out with the clear aim of terrorizing and immiserating the Ukrainian population. While I have no doubt that the Ukrainian people will continue to stand strong against Putin, I am deeply disturbed by the direction of U.S. policy and the President's recent statements. In just the past days, Donald Trump announced a likely illegal deal to buy an inconsequential amount of diesel from Russia, as well as an ‘energy ceasefire’ that he appears to have imagined. Those decisions are bad enough, but if they were to be accompanied by any pullback in the assistance the U.S. provides to our Ukrainian partners, it would be a cowardly betrayal that makes our nation and the world less safe.

“As of this afternoon, the Committee has received no notification of any change in posture with respect to intelligence support to Ukraine, but we are seeking confirmation. To the Ukrainian people, it remains the case that the vast majority of Congress and the American people stand with Ukraine in their fight to defend their country, and we will continue to do so.”

Ranking Members Himes, Raskin Urge Kash Patel to Abandon Russia Trip Hosted By Putin’s Security Service Amid Espionage Concerns

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, D.C. (October 9, 2026)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jim Himes, Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, are urging Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel to cancel his reported trip to Russia next month, raising urgent national security concerns about his plans to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg as the FBI expands cooperation with Russian and Chinese law enforcement agencies. Patel will reportedly be hosted by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, which has a documented history of conducting espionage operations against American officials and personnel.

“Winston Churchill described Russia as ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.’ Now, we have a puzzle buried in a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside that enigma: Why is the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) visiting a hostile foreign power that has been committing war crimes, conducting influence operations against U.S. elections, conducting malicious cyberattacks against our critical infrastructure, and helping our adversaries target and kill American soldiers?” wrote the Ranking Members. “In the interest of national security, we ask you to reconsider. Call off this trip.”

The trip comes amid reports that Patel is personally leading an initiative to forge closer ties between the FBI and Russian and Chinese law enforcement agencies, including personnel exchanges and intelligence sharing. While the Administration strikes a big anti-China pose, Patel has reportedly already provided Chinese officials unprecedented access to American intelligence personnel, diplomatic personnel, government facilities and contractors, despite longstanding warnings that foreign intelligence services will exploit such access to conduct espionage.

The timing raises additional concerns. In the last two weeks, President Trump signed sweeping sanctions targeting Russia’s economy over its war against Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia continues to conduct espionage and cyberattacks against the United States and its allies, and has reportedly provided Iran with intelligence to help refine aerial attacks on American troops in the Middle East. DOJ also recently revealed a Russian intelligence-linked murder-for-hire plot targeting a prominent Russian dissident in Washington, D.C.

Patel’s hosts are no ordinary law enforcement partners. Russia’s FSB has a documented history of surveilling American officials, planting recording devices and conducting honey trap operations targeting U.S. personnel. Compounding these concerns, Patel received $25,000 for participating in a documentary produced by a filmmaker with Kremlin ties, in which he openly dismissed U.S. intelligence assessments of Russian election interference and claimed Moscow was not among America’s “true enemies.”

The Ranking Members are calling on Patel to cancel his trip and, if he insists on proceeding, are requesting a closed-door briefing on the FBI’s expanding cooperation with foreign adversaries and the security precautions surrounding his odd visit. The briefing must address the FBI’s efforts to increase cooperation with Russia, China and other designated foreign entities; any internal concerns or objections to those efforts; who proposed the trip and why; Patel’s complete itinerary, planned meetings and traveling companions; and precautions to protect against Russian espionage, including technological safeguards, and additional counterintelligence measures.

Click here to read the letter.

Himes, Warner Push for Transparency on Election Security

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, DC -- U.S. Representative Jim Himes (D-CT), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Senator Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton regarding the upcoming midterm election, urging transparency to Congress and the public around possible foreign threats to the midterms.

“Career intelligence community (IC) analysts recently briefed the House Committee about the latest assessments regarding foreign threats to the upcoming midterms,” the lawmakers wrote. “These briefings, as well as additional briefings given to staff of both committees, provided valuable insight into how our intelligence professionals are monitoring potential attempts by our adversaries to influence or interfere in U.S. elections, and how such foreign malign activity compares to prior cycles. Between now and Election Day, it is critical the IC continue to inform policymakers, state and local election administrators, and the American people about threats to our elections.”

They continued, “While we have received the first in a series of statutorily required reports about foreign adversaries targeting this election, there are still several outstanding statutorily required products owed to the Committees. It is essential that the IC complete production of its remaining assessments in a timely manner, so that policymakers remain up-to-date regarding any emerging intelligence or shifts in the analytic line before the midterm elections. This process should include the declassification and public issuance of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) about foreign threats to the 2024 presidential election. The lack of a public ICA contravenes the law and undercuts needed transparency about IC efforts to keep our elections secure from outside interference.”

In addition to these statutory requirements, the lawmakers requested a full interagency classified update for members before the election, a commitment to provide real-time notification about emerging threats to elections, and the responsible release of unclassified election assessments to keep the public informed about possible threats and other relevant context.

“A statement noting the absence of indications of significant foreign interference efforts is just as important as a statement exposing any such activities. Regardless, the American people should receive as much information as we can responsibly provide prior to the election,” they concluded.

Read the full letter here.

HPSCI ‘Very Likely’ to Investigate Corrupt Dealings with Private Sector

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Jim Himes, Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today wrote to the National Defense Industrial Association, which represents hundreds of companies with contracts with the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense, with reminder that its members are subject to congressional oversight. The letter follows news that several NDIA companies contributed funding to the White House ballroom project.

“I am concerned that the current Administration has departed from decades of precedent in favor of unethical or even nakedly corrupt dealings with the private sector,” wrote Himes. “At times, the Administration has appeared to inappropriately fuse the government contracting process with the attempted extraction of political or private favors.”

The letter continued, “For example, on July 31, 2025, President Trump announced plans to build a new ballroom on the White House grounds where the East Wing of the White House once stood. The White House said the project would be paid for with private contributions rather than congressionally appropriated funds. Some of the companies publicly identified as having contributed funding to this effort are members of the NDIA and, according to reporting, have significant contracts with the Intelligence Community.

“Going forward, the Committee may seek information in the form of documents, communications, transcribed testimony, and otherwise to understand how corporate contributions to this project were solicited and made, who was involved in those discussions, and whether contributions were related in any way to the goal of obtaining or maintaining government contracts, access to the President or Administration officials, or other benefits. The Committee may also consider whether contributions of this kind create actual or apparent conflicts of interest and national security risks, and whether additional disclosure requirements or other safeguards should be put in place via federal legislation. Finally, the Committee may seek documents and other information to understand other unusual dealings between the White House, senior Administration officials, and NDIA members.”

The full letter is available here.

Top Intel Democrat Probes Counterintelligence Threat from Trump Family Ties to Kremlin

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Jim Himes, Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel regarding public reporting that a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin paid for significant portions of Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration in May 2026.

“As you know, the FBI has primary responsibility for counterintelligence within the United States,” wrote Himes, “including identifying and mitigating efforts by foreign intelligence services and their proxies to gain access to Americans in positions of power. Although Mr. Trump Jr. is not a public official, as the son of the President and as someone with access to senior policymakers, he would be a natural target for foreign espionage and influence operations.”

The letter continued, “As noted by former FBI counterintelligence officials quoted in the ProPublica reporting, foreign intelligence operatives seek ties with U.S. officials and their relatives and may use financial inducements to gain access. In this case, it appears a Kremlin-connected individual provided substantial undisclosed financial benefits to a close family member and political adviser of the President. These facts warrant careful counterintelligence review to identify and mitigate risks to national security—whether or not a crime was committed. And, as you know, in the counterintelligence context the FBI regularly opens investigations on the basis of a threat to national security alone.”

The letter included a series of questions regarding the counterintelligence concerns with a deadline of September 30^th for response.

The full letter is available here.

Impeachment Inquiry: Ms. Cooper & Mr. Hale

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 19:30:00 GMT

Impeachment Inquiry: Ambassador Sondland

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 14:00:00 GMT

Impeachment Inquiry: Ambassador Volker & Mr. Morrison

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 19:30:00 GMT

Impeachment Inquiry: Ms. Williams & Lt. Col. Vindman

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 14:00:00 GMT

Impeachment Inquiry: Dr. Hill

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 14:00:00 GMT

Full Committee Open Hearing

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 15:00:00 GMT

Full Committee Open Hearing

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 15:00:00 GMT

Full Committee Hearing: Whistleblower Disclosure

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 13:00:00 GMT

Full Committee Witness Interview (Closed)

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 13:30:00 GMT

U.S.-Saudi Security Relationship

Tue, 24 Sep 2019 13:30:00 GMT