The incoming Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is promising to scrutinise the CIA’s “extremely aggressive” use of covert action since President Donald Trump returned to office, part of a broader Democratic effort to renew oversight of American spy agencies next year.
In an interview with The New York Times, Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut outlined his priorities once the new Democratic Congress is sworn in. His committee will also examine donations to Trump’s various construction projects in Washington from defence and intelligence contractors, and investigate whether intelligence analysts have been pressured to write reports that align with the objectives of senior administration officials.
“Covert action has become much more aggressive worldwide, and the committee would be massively failing at its job if it didn’t double down on oversight,” Himes said in the interview.
Last year, Trump took the unusual step of publicly acknowledging that he had authorised covert action in Venezuela, allowing the CIA to operate there clandestinely. Himes said the expansion of covert action was not limited to Venezuela. CIA Director John Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman, promised that the agency under his leadership would become more aggressive. The CIA declined to comment on Himes’s intentions.
Himes’s agenda underscores how Democrats hope to use their commanding majorities in the House and Senate, won in last week’s midterm elections, to act as a check on executive power. He is likely to encounter resistance from the administration on all three of his priorities. Will Scharf, the White House counsel, has asserted that aggressive oversight by Democratic lawmakers “may cross the line into blatant criminality.”
Himes currently serves as the committee’s ranking member and is expected to take the chairmanship when Democrats assume control of the House in January.
