Director of National Intelligence Cancels Election Security Briefings, Democrats Say

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An American flag flies outside of the U.S. Capitol building on Aug. 18, 2020. House Democrats announced Saturday they’ve been told they will not be receiving further briefings on election interference.

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An American flag flies outside of the U.S. Capitol building on Aug. 18, 2020. House Democrats announced Saturday they’ve been told they will not be receiving further briefings on election interference.

Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has informed Senate and House intelligence committees that it will no longer brief Congress on foreign efforts to interfere in the November election, according to congressional Democrats.

In a joint statement released Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Congress had been set for briefings on election security in mid-September. But briefings for members of Congress, including the House and Senate intelligence committees, by the office of National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe have now been called off, they said.

«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,» Pelosi and Schiff said in the statement.

«This intelligence belongs to the American people, not the agencies which are its custodian. And the American people have both the right and the need to know that another nation, Russia, is trying to help decide who their president should be,» they said.

This is a developing story.

• election interference
• Rep Adam Schiff
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi