[ad_1]
Brian Murphy was the head of the intelligence department of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until he was removed from office on August 1.
In a whistleblowing case, he says an attempt was made to inflate the threat of potential terrorists who might enter the country from Mexico, as well as downplay the threat from white nationalists.
Acting Security Minister Chad Wolf reportedly asked him in May to stop producing intelligence reports on the threat of Russian interference in the United States.
Called as a witness
The reason was that they put the president in a bad position, says Murphy, who adds that he did not comply with the order because he would consider it a violation of his duties.
The complaint claims that Wolf said the order came from President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien.
The ministry’s deputy chief, Ken Cuccinelli, also ordered changes to parts of an intelligence report to make the threat from white supremacists appear less serious, as well as to incorporate information about violent left-wing groups, Murphy said.
The complaint was presented to the Inspector General of the Ministry and published on Wednesday by the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives. The committee asked Murphy, a former FBI agent and Army Navy veteran, to testify at a hearing on Sept. 21.
– Disturbing
DHS has not responded to the AP news agency’s request for comment on the case.
“Serious and disturbing allegations are being made here that senior White House and DHS officials were inappropriately trying to politicize, manipulate and censor intelligence so that it could benefit President Trump politically,” said the committee’s Democratic leader, Adam Schiff. .
– This puts our nation and its security in great danger, he adds.
Migrants in the south
Murphy believes he was demoted from the ministry because he refused to change intelligence reports in an “illegal and inappropriate way.”
He accuses former security ministers Kirstjen Nielsen, Wolf and Cuccinelli of repeatedly pressuring him to change intelligence reports to support the Trump administration’s policy or avoid insulting the president.
In one example, Nielsen is accused of pressuring him to exaggerate the number of migrants linked to terrorism who were arrested on the southwestern border of the United States. Murphy claims that Nielsen wrongly declared a higher number when he testified in Congress.
