Senate snooped

2 Dems: CIA Director John Brennan should resign

By BURGESS EVERETT 

Two Democratic senators demanded that Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan resign on Thursday after revelations that the CIA snooped on Senate computers.

Administration officials briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee’s membership on Thursday afternoon about an inspector general report that revealed CIA officials improperly accessed computers used by Senate staffers to research a 6,700-page report on the agency’s Bush-era interrogation and detention practices.

And while Brennan called Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to apologize for the CIA’s actions, that mea culpa wasn’t enough for Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), a civil libertarian locked in a difficult reelection campaign against GOP Rep. Cory Gardner, and freshman Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.).

“At this point it would probably be better for the agency, frankly, if he did step aside. I think that the level of trust between the committee and the director has hit a new low,” Heinrich told reporters. He said he had not spoken to Brennan recently.

Feinstein demurred when asked about Brennan’s future.

“I’m not going to get into that now, thank you though,” she said.

Udall railed on Thursday against the CIA’s “tremendous failure of leadership” displayed by Brennan in the aftermath of Feinstein’s March accusation that the CIA accessed Senate computers. The senator said the CIA director was not forthright about the agency’s interference into the torture report and said the IG report “isn’t enough.”

“I have no choice but to call for the resignation of CIA Director John Brennan. The CIA unconstitutionally spied on Congress by hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers. This grave misconduct not only is illegal, but it violates the U.S. Constitution’s requirement of separation of powers,” Udall said. “There must be consequences.”

A CIA spokesman declined to comment on the resignation requests.