WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Trump administration national security officials, in back-to-back congressional hearings starting Wednesday, are expected to be pressed on the war with Iran, including a deadly strike on a school, as well as the FBI's capacity to prevent terrorist attacks inside the United States.
The annual worldwide threats hearings involving the government's most senior intelligence officials are taking place at a time of scrutiny over the U.S.
military campaign in the Middle East and heightened concerns about terrorism at home following recent attacks at a Michigan synagogue and Virginia university.
The testimony before the House and Senate intelligence committees is expected to center on the war and in particular the revelation that outdated intelligence likely led to the U.S. firing a missile that hit an elementary school in Iran and killed more than 165 people. The outdated targeting data was reported to have come from the Defense Intelligence Agency, whose director, Lt. Gen. James H. Adams, was among those set to testify. The White House says the strike is under investigation.
The hearings, first in the Senate and then Thursday in the House, are also likely to delve into internal administration debate over the war, given the resignation this week of Joe Kent as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Kent said Tuesday that he could not “in good conscience” back the administration's war and that he did not agree that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States.
Hours later, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, whose office oversaw Kent’s work and who is expected at the hearings this week, wrote in a carefully worded social media post that it was up to Trump to decide whether Iran posed a threat. She did not mention her own views of the strikes.
Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe may also be questioned over recent intelligence assessments about Iran, including one that showed U.S. strikes are unlikely to result in a change of government in Tehran, and another that cast doubt on claims Iran was preparing to strike first.
Apart from Iran, Gabbard is sure to be pressed on her presence at an FBI search in January of an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia, where agents seized voter data from the 2020 presidential election. Her appearance at a domestic law enforcement operation raised eyebrows given that Gabbard's office is meant to focus squarely on foreign threats.
It was, said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the Senate committee's top Democrat, “an organized effort to misuse her national security powers to interfere in domestic politics and potentially provide a pretext for the president’s unconstitutional efforts to seize control of the upcoming elections.”
The hearings are also likely to focus on Kash Patel's leadership of the FBI. It will be his first public appearance on Capitol Hill since video surfaced last month showing him partying with members of the U.S. men's hockey team after their gold medal win at the Winter Olympics.
He has fired dozens of agents in his first year on the job, raising concerns about an exodus of national security experience at a time when the U.S. is confronting an elevated terrorism threat.
This month alone, a gunman wearing clothes with an Iranian flag design and the words “Property of Allah” killed two people at a Texas bar; two men who authorities say were inspired by the Islamic State group were arrested on charges of bringing homemade powerful explosives to a protest outside the New York City mayoral mansion; a man with a past terrorism conviction opened fire inside an Old Dominion University classroom in Virginia; and a Lebanese-born man in Michigan drove his car into a synagogue.
The FBI has said that it is working around the clock to protect the country.
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Associated Press writers Mike Catalini and Ben Finley contributed to this report.
