Lurking In An FBI Evidence Truck Ossoff Sounds Alarm At Gabbard s Presence At Georgia FBI Raid

Thank you Mr. Chairman and General, thank you for your career of service to the United States and congratulations on your nomination to this important post. Before I engage with you, I just want to note for the committee that my constituents in Georgia and I think much of the American public are quite reasonably alarmed and asking questions after the Director of National Intelligence was spotted bizarrely and personally lurking in an FBI evidence truck in Fulton County, Georgia yesterday. And so I encourage all of us on a bipartisan basis to pursue the facts as swiftly as possible to understand whether the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is straying far outside of its lane. I regret to share my observation that the President at this point is clearly using federal law enforcement in order to pursue personal vendettas. That has nothing to do with you and your career to date nor is it something for which I hold you accountable or would expect you to explain. But it is a well-known fact and it quite reasonably, given the immense surveillance capabilities of the National Security Agency, raises the concern that there might be some abuse of the NSA's authorities. And so my question for you is that if there is some alteration or withdrawal of current administrative prohibitions on surveillance targeting Americans, for example, in Executive Order 1233, PPD 28, USSID 18, or otherwise, will you promptly inform this committee with our oversight responsibilities of such a change? Senator, I will pledge, if confirmed, to ensure that the NSA executes its mission within the authorities and all applicable laws and that I will execute the duties of this position that enables this committee to exercise its oversight responsibilities. General, I appreciate the answer and I want you to think a little bit more deeply about the question and consult with your team and follow up with more precision for the record. Because the challenge I'm identifying is that you may be asked to do things that are manifestly unethical and improper, but following some alteration of present administrative policy may indeed be lawful. And this committee needs to know if such administrative policies, which currently protect American civil liberties but are not in statute, are changed. And my view would be that under existing law, anyone in the seat that you hope to hold would have a statutory obligation to inform this committee of any such change. So I hope to get some more detail beyond boilerplate on that for the record. You will also be taking this post, General, if confirmed. So can I get a commitment that you will respond with a more fulsome answer for the record, please, General? Senator, I look forward to looking into that topic and responding to you. Thank you. If confirmed, you'll take this post after a series of events that suggest a crisis for information security and operational security practices in the federal government. We had the Secretary of Defense inadvertently text strike details to a national political reporter, including time over target for U.S. air crews before those U.S. air crews had launched into hostile enemy airspace. Multiple major news outlets were reportedly aware of the imminent raid targeting Maduro in Venezuela before the raid was executed. This week, here's a headline from Politico, Trump's acting cyber chief uploaded sensitive files into a public version of chat GPT. NSA has a crucial role supporting information security, cryptographic integrity, and best practices across the federal government. How will you and your role constructively address these many failures and the broader problem of information security failures in the federal government? Senator, I recognize the critical role that NSA plays in this space and certainly, if confirmed, I pledge to ensure that it continues to execute its mission to its fullest. Thank you, General.