(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Former CBS journalist Sharyl Attkisson didn’t mince words when she testified Thursday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on press freedom, telling members that they’re failing to hold U.S. intelligence agencies accountable.
Attkisson was speaking in response to questions from Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-NY, about the committee’s proposed PRESS Act, which would block litigants and the federal government from prying into a reporter’s files—except when there is an imminent threat of violence, including terrorism, and in defamation cases.
Attkisson said she supported the legislation, but that it wouldn’t be enough to hold U.S. agencies to account. Nadler then asked her what a better solution would be. Attkisson responded with a trenchant criticism of the role the legislative branch plays in relation to agencies such as the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security.
Investigative reporter @SharylAttkisson nails it here:
"The intelligence agencies feel like they’re running the committees here, rather than the committees conducting oversight of them." pic.twitter.com/YNLkisA7bu
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) April 11, 2024
“I think it’s a global problem that has to do with sending a message of oversight to the intelligence agencies that we know for decades have violated rights and made policies that are contrary to the Constitution,” Attkisson responded.
“I don’t think there’s been an effort they think that’s serious. I feel like the intelligence agencies feel like they’re running the committees here, rather than the committees conducting oversight of them,” she said.
“There needs to be something where they understand they would be held accountable when they do things. I don’t know what that looks like in practice.”
Attkisson knows all about the out-of-control government agencies. She is the reporter who broke numerous stories on the Obama-era Operation Fast and Furious scandal, which entailed the ATF purposely allowing firearms dealers to sell marked weapons illegally with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels.
Moreover, Attkisson had her computers hacked by federal agents, likely in retaliation for her Fast and Furious reporting.
Attkisson said she discovered she was hacked after noticing “anomalies” on her personal devices.
When she had her home and devices inspected, an investigator found that someone had attached an extra fiber optics line to her cable box.
“However, when we later went to retrieve the cable for examination by a trained specialist, it had been removed and was gone,” she said in a recent affidavit, outlining the spooky scenario. “I telephoned the Verizon technician daily to ask if he had returned to the house and retrieved the cable, but he never returned any of our calls.”
Attkisson’s litigation over the hacking is ongoing.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
