
Democrats Press Trump Intel Officials Over Leak Of Attack Plans
HuffPost
The hearing unfolded against the backdrop of a security breach involving the mistaken leak of attack plans to a journalist.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s top intelligence officials stressed to Congress the threat they said was posed by international criminal gangs, drug cartels and human smuggling, testifying in a hearing Tuesday that unfolded against the backdrop of a security breach involving the mistaken leak of attack plans to a journalist.
The annual hearing on worldwide threats before the Senate Intelligence Committee offered a glimpse of the new administration’s reorienting of priorities. It comes when President Donald Trump has opened a new line of communication with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and has focused national security attention closer to home to counter violent crime that officials link to cross-border drug trafficking.
“Criminal groups drive much of the unrest and lawlessness in the Western Hemisphere,” said Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence. Atop a long list of national security challenges, she cited the need to combat cartels that she said were “engaging in a wide array of illicit activity, from narcotics trafficking to money laundering to smuggling of illegal immigrants and human trafficking.”
Different parties prioritized different issues
The hearing occurred as officials across multiple presidential administrations describe an increasingly complicated blizzard of threats.