April 6, 2018
Ms. Joanne Murphy
Dear Ms. Murphy:
Thank you for contacting me about President Trump's intended nomination of Gina Haspel to serve as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). I appreciate hearing from you.
In March 2018,President Trump announced he was nominating current CIA Director Mike Pompeo to serve as Secretary of State, and that he intended to nominate Gina Haspel to serve as the next CIA Director. Ms. Haspel is a veteran CIA officer whom currently serves as the Deputy Director of the CIA.
I am concerned about any role Ms. Haspel may have played in the destruction of evidence of the CIA's past torture program and what role she may have played in the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques. I was very critical of the CIA's detention and interrogation program, repeatedly questioning its legality, and the allegations of Ms. Haspel's involvement in torture and a subsequent cover-up are alarming. I will keep these concerns in mind as Congress prepares to consider Ms. Haspel for this cabinet position.
The nominationof people to serve as cabinet secretaries, advisors, and directors ofintelligence agencies is often one of the most important decisions made by apresident. Those who work with the President to implement the President'spolicies can set the tone and direction for the federal government'sinteraction with people in far-reaching ways.
President Trump has not sent a formal notice of nomination to the Senate and the Senate Intelligence Committee has not set a date for Ms. Haspel's confirmation hearing yet. I will keep your concerns about her forthcoming nomination in mind as I continue to diligently review each one of President Trump's Cabinet nominations.
Thank you again for contacting me. Please feel free to keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator
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It doesn’t take a genius to see that he is leaving the door open to voting to confirm her. In my opinion, this kind of namby-pamby stance of so many Democrats is why so many of us get discouraged and stay home on Election Day. We need loud, progressive red-blooded Dems, not milquetoast centrists. I cannot believe he would even CONSIDER saying Yes to someone like Haspel. What mitigating characteristics could possibly come to light to make he a favorable choice? Is he simply waiting to see which way the wind blows?
(If you will recall, I got the same kind of wishy-washy response from Durbin (read it here) when I wrote to him about the Dodd-Frank rollbacks. Sen. Warren (D-MA) was furious that so many Democrats voted Yes on that nonsense; she wasn’t alone. Now we are all vulnerable to another 2007-style market crash and its attendant disasters. )
I realize that in these perilous times we should be diehard blue or nothings, but Durbin is really testing me. I have passed the point in life where merely having a D after his or her name will endear a representative to me. I want to see some principles.
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