The letter, dated July 13, was signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, and top Democrats on Senate and House intelligence committees, Senator Mark Warner and Representative Adam Schiff. He cites concern that Congress is being targeted by “a concerted foreign interference campaign that seeks to launder and amplify disinformation to influence Congressional activity, public debate, and the November presidential elections.”
A congressional official told CNN on Monday that to ensure “a clear and unambiguous record of threats of counterintelligence concern,” the four Democratic lawmakers included a classified annex “that relies, in large part, on reports and analysis. of the Executive Power “.
“The FBI’s counterintelligence experts must provide the entire Congress with a defensive counterintelligence briefing on these threats before the August recess,” the official added.
The letter comes when Gen. Paul Nakasone, a senior official with the National Security Agency and the US Cyber Command, warned Monday that the United States is seeing an “increase in capacity” and “capacity” of cyber programs from major foreign adversaries, including Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.
“Our adversaries know that this is a means by which they can try to have an impact on us and therefore we have seen growth in terms of programs in all major adversaries,” he said. “We have also seen an increase in capacity. And in the same way, we have become a much more capable force, so are our adversaries. And so I would tell them whether it is China or Iran or not, or North Korea. This is why it is so important that we are in daily competition with what we need to do and I would say that the advantages we have are often not mentioned. “
“Our number one goal, our number one goal at the National Security Agency and the US Cyber Command. It is a safe and legitimate election for 2020,” added Nakasone, noting that relevant agencies will act when they see foreign adversaries who they try to interfere with democracy. process.
While the letter does not specifically mention Russia, Democrats in Congress have already expressed concern that Russia will once again interfere in the 2020 election, and that President Donald Trump, who has refused to agree with the community of Intelligence that Russia interfered with to help its campaign in 2016 will take sufficient measures to combat the problem.
The incident helped eliminate Joseph Maguire as acting director of national intelligence, who was replaced by loyalist Trump Richard Grenell.
Grenell played the role as an actor for several months before Republican Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas was confirmed by the Senate as permanent director of national intelligence in May.
In his final hours as America’s top intelligence official, Grenell dealt a final blow to congressional Democrats, accusing Warner of “choosing certain documents to free them” for political reasons.
He also declassified more documents linked to the origins of Russia’s investigation before leaving office, actions that were emblematic of a brief but consistent and controversial term as interim director of national intelligence.
Since his confirmation, Ratcliffe has attempted to make the transition from being one of the president’s primary advocates to leading an intelligence community that has come under constant criticism from Trump, who has promoted unsubstantiated claims about a “deep state” of career officials trying to undermine his presidency. .
Ratcliffe will play a key role in deciding which documents to publish in the midst of an election amid expanding Congressional investigations targeting Obama administration officials and Trump 2020 opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. .
It will also lead the intelligence community’s response to the intrusion of foreign elections in the 2020 elections.
Ratcliffe has been unequivocal in believing that Russia has interfered in the American elections and will continue to do so, but has not sided with one of the key findings from the intelligence community: that Russia was trying to help Trump in 2016.
The letter sent to Wray by top Democrats on Monday is not addressed to Ratcliffe, but is copied along with Nakasone and CIA Director Gina Haspel.
CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to reflect that the letter to Wray was sent last week and published on Monday.
CNN’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.
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