(WASHINGTON) — Top officials from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security on Thursday drew bipartisan fire for declining to testify in public at a Senate hearing on “worldwide threats” and instead offering to testify in a classified setting.
Both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security Committee expressed anger at what they called Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray’s “refusal” to testify in public.
“In a shocking departure from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s longstanding tradition of transparency and oversight of the threats facing our nation, for the first time in more than 15 years, the Homeland Security and FBI Director have refused to appear before the Committee to provide public testimony at our annual hearing on Threats to the Homeland,” Chairman Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement.
Peters said it was “their choice” to not provide public testimony for the American people.
“Americans deserve transparency, public answers about the threats we face,” Peters said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, went a step further and said he “looked forward to Director Wray’s resignation.”
“This is Mayorkas & Wray giving the middle finger to the American people,” he tweeted.
While it wasn’t immediately clear specifically why they declined to testify in public, a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement that Mayorkas has appeared before Congress more than 30 times.
“DHS and the FBI have offered to the Committee a classified briefing to discuss the threats to the Homeland in detail, providing the Committee with the information it needs to conduct its work in the months ahead,” a the spokesperson said in a statement. “DHS and the FBI already have shared with the Committee and other Committees, and with the American public, extensive unclassified information about the current threat environment, including the recently published Homeland Threat Assessment.”
The FBI said in a statement they’ve “repeatedly” showed their commitment to being transparent with the American people.
“We remain committed to sharing information about the continuously evolving threat environment facing our nation and the extraordinary work the men and women of the FBI are doing — here at home and around the world — to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States,” according to an FBI statement. “FBI leaders have testified extensively in public settings about the current threat environment and believe the Committee would benefit most from further substantive discussions and additional information that can only be provided in a classified setting.”
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