Top Democrat vows to increase oversight of intelligence agencies - Semafor

The top Democrat in charge of overseeing US intelligence agencies in the next Congress vowed Wednesday to increase oversight of the Trump administration’s expanded use of covert action.

The White House has reportedly increased spy agencies’ footprint in Mexico and Latin America, and against adversaries in cyberspace, while also firing hundreds of longtime officials.

Rep. Jim Himes said the investigations would probe whether officials “were fired because they said something that was inconsistent with what the president wanted to be true.”

Congress is also looking to scrutinize a rash of 11 or more suicides this year at US cyber agencies, where workload has surged in the past year in response to escalating foreign conflicts, Bloomberg reported.