Feinstein Statement on CIA Accountability Review Board, IG Reports

Jan 14 2015

Washington—The CIA today released redacted versions of a CIA inspector general report and a CIA Accountability Review Board report, both of which relate to the CIA's access of Senate Intelligence Committee computers during its review of the agency’s detention and interrogation program.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released the following statement:

"Declassified versions of the two CIA reports publicly released today conclude that CIA personnel improperly accessed Senate Intelligence Committee computer networks.

CIA IG report

"The first report is from the CIA inspector general. Completed in July 2014, that report found that CIA personnel ‘improperly accessed SSCI Majority shared drives’ (page i).

CIA Accountability Review Board report

"The second report was the recently completed CIA Accountability Review Board, led by former Senator Evan Bayh. That report found that a search by CIA personnel ‘resulted in inappropriate access to SSCI work product’ (page 24).

"The report further said ‘the Board found that, while this was clearly inappropriate, it was a mistake that did not reflect malfeasance, bad faith, or the intention to gain improper access to SSCI confidential, deliberative material.’

"The Accountability Review Board also found that searches by committee staff using the search tool provided by the CIA yielded documents including the Panetta Review (page 38). This is consistent with what I have said previously and supports my strong belief that committee investigators acted within the scope of their mandate and did nothing wrong.

Conclusion

"Let me be clear: I continue to believe CIA’s actions constituted a violation of the constitutional separation of powers and unfortunately led to the CIA’s referral of unsubstantiated criminal charges to the Justice Department against committee staff.

"I’m thankful that Director Brennan has apologized for these actions, but I’m disappointed that no one at the CIA will be held accountable. The decision was made to search committee computers, and someone should be found responsible for those actions.

"The Intelligence Committee received the Accountability Review Board report this morning and we are still reviewing the document.”

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• Final Report of the Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation Network Accountability Board - Redacted version CIA Dec 2014, Released 14 Jan 2015
• July 2014 CIA Office of Inspector General Report of Investigation: Agency Access to the SSCI Shared Drive on RDINet - Redacted Version CIA - OIG 18 Jul 2014, Released 14 Jan 2015