A senior official with the Department of Homeland Security alleged in a whistleblower complaint that he had been stressed to adjust intelligence documents, threats of Russian electoral interference and white supremacist violence, for political reasons.
The official, Brian Murphy, until last month was the deputy principal secretary of the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis, but then, according to his whistleblower complaint, was demoted to a position in dhS’s control division.
The complaint, which was published Tuesday through the House Intelligence Committee, highlights Murphy’s accusations of repeated abuse and retaliation through senior DHS officials, adding an existing senior MP in the department, Ken Cuccinelli, and existing interim secretary Chad Wolf.
Perhaps the most explosive accusations in Murphy’s complaint are his claims that Wolf and Cuccinelli insisted that he replace intelligence tests to adapt to President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about “antifa” (a general term for anti-progressive groups), the risk posed by white supremacists. interference in Russian elections.
While the complaint notes that most of the alleged abuses Murphy has witnessed are classified, some are detailed in the document.
In March, for example, Murphy allegedly learned that a risk assessment had been delayed because Wolf and Cuccinelli were involved in “how the HTA would think about President Trump,” according to the complaint.
In summer meetings, Cuccinelli later told Murphy that he would “modify the white supremacy segment to make the risk seem less serious, as well as data on the prominence of “left” violent groups, according to the complaint. Murphy refused to make the changes, according to his complaint.
After a meeting with Wolf on the STD, in which Wolf requested a copy of the document so that he could upload data on the riots in Portland, Oregon, Murphy claimed that he had been excluded from the STD drafting process. his complaint, “it will be more of a policy document referring to ANTIFA and teams” anarchists “than an intelligence document. “
In May, Murphy told how Wolf ordered him to avoid offering intelligence on Russia and start reporting on China and Iran, and mentioned the orders of White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien. The following month, according to Murphy, Cuccinelli ordered him to stop an intelligence notification related to Russia’s disinformation efforts because it “made the president look bad. “
Murphy rejected any of the instructions, he said, and Wolf then took steps to exclude him from the subject, according to his complaint.
Two other sections of the complaint refer to the alleged politicization of the Trump administration’s border and asylum policy. Murphy alleged that he had been stressed through the office of then-secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, to reinterpret knowledge of the border crossing to fit the administration’s confidence that was known or suspected. Terrorists (KST) were crossing the US-Mexico border in gigantic numbers, even though he knew it wasn’t true. Despite his efforts, Murphy alleged that Nielsen later gave false testimony to Congress about the KST risk of crossing the border.
Murphy’s complaint alleged that he nearly fired him for refusing to provide data on KSHs that he believed to be inaccurate. His manager now retired, then the undersecretary of I
In the procedure mentioned in the complaint, Cuccinelli ordered Murphy and Glawe to dismiss or reassign “deep state intelligence analysts” who wrote reports on situations in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador that Cuccinelli said undermined Trump’s message about U. S. asylum policy. But Murphy and Glawe later agreed that firing the perpetrators would be an abuse of authority over political differences. “Sir Cuccinelli’s commands have never been implemented,” the report says.
According to the complaint, Murphy is represented through Mark S. Zaid and Zaid’s lawyers, who specialize in whistleblowing cases.