But there is a slight—major?—problem with Haines’ alert; she clearly exceeded the boundaries of her authority. Haines’ definition of a DVE, per her report, is “an individual based and operating primarily in the United States without direction or inspiration from a foreign terrorist group or other foreign power.” Haines’ purview, however, is solely vested in gathering intelligence related to bad actors allied with hostile regimes beyond our shores, not Trump-supporting veterans from Virginia.
Fortunately, Biden’s intel chiefs did not find the same fawning audience in House Republicans that they found in their Senate Republican counterparts.
During a separate hearing Thursday morning, Haines, Wray, and NSA Director Paul Nakasone were blasted by GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee for abusing their authority to advance the Democrats’ political agenda. Representative Chris Stewart (R-Utah) asked each official whether he or she was statutorily empowered to spy on Americans with “no foreign nexus”; each answered no.
“It’s very clear the IC has no authority to turn your tools or your resources on American citizens,” Stewart scolded. Holding up a copy of Haines’ report, Stewart asked her if she used intelligence community resources to draft the document in violation of an executive order clearly limiting the IC’s reach to “foreign security threats.”
* DVE = domestic violence extremists. Nevermind the fact there are no examples of violence to justify the term.
https://amgreatness.com/2021/04/15/biden-intelligence-community-breaches-authority-to-target-the-right/
