House Intelligence Committee Investigating DHS Office That Compiled 'Intelligence Reports' on Journalists and Protesters

By Shane Harris, The Washington Post

04 August 20

he House Intelligence Committee is opening an investigation into the activities of the Intelligence and Analysis Office (I & A) at the Department of Homeland Security, which has compiled “intelligence reports” on journalists and protesters, the committee chairman announced in a letter to department officials on Monday.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the committee chairman, called revelations of DHS’s activities, first reported by The Washington Post, “deeply troubling.”

“The revelations require a full accounting and, if substantiated, must never be allowed to occur again,” Schiff wrote to senior department officials, including the acting secretary, Chad Wolf. The investigation will cover I & A’s activities in Portland, Ore., as well as its support for the department’s response to protests nationwide, Schiff said.

In an email to DHS employees on Monday, Wolf said that department officials “firmly believe that a free and open press is essential to American democracy” and that he has “made it clear that we should not and will not identify U.S. members of the press in our intelligence products.”

Wolf confirmed that he has reassigned Brian Murphy, who has been the acting undersecretary for the Intelligence and Analysis Office. That followed reporting by The Post about his office’s activities, which current and former officials have said show an alarming abuse of authorities that are traditionally used to compile information about suspected terrorists, people connected to organized crime or violent actors such as mass shooters.

Wolf wrote that Joseph Maher, the department’s principal deputy general counsel, would step in as the temporary head of I & A while the inspector general conducts an investigation into the office’s activities. Horace Jen, the current senior deputy in the office, will continue in that position, Wolf wrote.