Only members of congressional committees have broad access to the country’s secretive spy agencies, allowing them to ensure that they operate efficiently, effectively and legally.
But this week, the Pentagon canceled a classified visit to a military spy agency by the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, after the far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer complained.
The Trump administration has been steadily eroding the power of Congress, chipping away at its ability to set spending priorities and ignoring its role in authorizing military force. Restrictions on oversight now appear to be an emerging front in the administration’s efforts to enhance executive authority.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee and a long-serving member of the panel, had planned to visit the Virginia headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency this week. But Pentagon officials told his office on Tuesday that the visit was canceled, and also imposed new requirements on congressional visits to military intelligence facilities.
The Trump administration has blocked access to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities despite a law that allows members of Congress to make unannounced visits. Congressional Democrats sued to gain entrance to them.
But Mr. Warner’s visit was different, with the purpose of conducting oversight of an agency out of the spotlight and removed from the divisive political battles over immigration. And while the public and journalists have broad access to most government agencies, intelligence agencies operate under a veil of secrecy, making congressional oversight particularly important.
“Is congressional oversight dead?” Mr. Warner said in a meeting with reporters on Wednesday. “This is a dangerous time. If we are not doing oversight, if the intelligence is potentially being cooked or being bent to meet the administrations needs, and we end up in a conflict — the American people have the right to say, ‘How the hell did this happen?’”
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is in charge of analyzing spy satellite imagery and crucial intelligence on everything from the movements of armies to the establishment of terrorist training camps.
Mr. Warner’s visit was classified and not intended to be publicized. It was to include a meeting with Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, the head of the agency; a meeting with personnel; and a briefing on the agency’s use of artificial intelligence to analyze imagery.
In a social media post on Sunday, Ms. Loomer denounced Mr. Warner for his criticism of Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and attacked Admiral Whitworth for agreeing to speak with the senator.
Mr. Warner has long warned about the dangers of election influence operations, which Ms. Loomer has derided without evidence as a “Russia conspiracy hoax.”
“Why are the Pentagon and IC allowing for the Director of an Intel agency to host a rabid ANTI-TRUMP DEMOCRAT SENATOR at NGA under the Trump administration?” Ms. Loomer wrote. “Clearly, a lot of Deep State actors are being given a pass in the Intel community to continue their efforts to sabotage Trump under the Trump admin.”
In an interview on Wednesday, Ms. Loomer did not back down, and said that Mr. Warner should “be removed from office and tried for treason.” She accused him of spreading the unproven theory that Mr. Trump had worked with Russian intelligence to steal the 2016 election.
While the Senate Intelligence Committee did not accuse Mr. Trump of working with Russian intelligence, it examined ties between his presidential campaign and Russian officials, and documented Moscow’s attempts to influence the election.
Reminded that Mr. Trump’s current secretary of state, Marco Rubio, sat on the same committee that drafted a multivolume report on Russia’s actions in 2016, Ms. Loomer said, “Well, he should apologize, too. Everyone should. But at least Rubio has made amends with Trump and is working in his administration.”
Ms. Loomer also said she would continue to press for Admiral Whitworth’s dismissal, in part because he was a holdover from the Biden administration. She argued that he should not have invited Mr. Warner to his agency as an “honored guest,” saying it was “an act of insubordination” given Mr. Warner’s criticism of Mr. Trump.
In his meeting with reporters, Mr. Warner asked how a “trolling blogger” learned of a classified visit. Mr. Loomer, who is not employed by the government and does not hold a security clearance, said she was told of it by a person inside the intelligence community.
Explaining the cancellation, Mr. Warner said that Pentagon officials noted that he had planned to come by himself and without a Republican lawmaker.
The Pentagon did not immediately comment. A spokeswoman for Admiral Whitworth referred questions to the Pentagon.
Mr. Warner said he had made many oversight visits to intelligence agencies with Mr. Rubio, when the secretary of state was a Republican senator from Florida, and Richard Burr of North Carolina, also a Republican. Still, Mr. Warner said that there had never been a requirement that the visits be bipartisan, and that he had made many oversight visits on his own.
Mr. Warner said he had previously been blocked from conducting an oversight visit at a Department of Veterans Affairs facility in Salem, Va. He said he planned to raise the issue with his Republican colleagues on Wednesday and Thursday.
But so far, Republicans in Congress have been muted in their criticism of the Trump administration, even as it has eroded traditional congressional powers and responsibilities.
The cancellation of the visit also raised the issue of the growing influence of Ms. Loomer over the intelligence agencies. Ms. Loomer has questioned the loyalty of various intelligence officers, and helped oust the National Security Agency’s director, deputy director and general counsel. She claimed to have contributed to the list of 37 current and former intelligence officials whose security clearances were recently revoked.
Mr. Warner said that Ms. Loomer’s efforts to target experienced intelligence analysts was deeply disturbing.
“You have this outside person that prior to this administration was viewed as a joke consistently going through the intelligence community and knocking off folks,” he said.
The ousters of senior people from the spy agencies, including the C.I.A., has weakened their ability to speak truth to power and left the country significantly worse off, Mr. Warner added.
“When is the purge going to end?” he asked. “This is the kind of thing that happens in authoritarian regimes. You purge your independent intelligence community and make them loyal not to a constitution but something else.”
Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.
Robert Draper is based in Washington and writes about domestic politics. He is the author of several books and has been a journalist for three decades.
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