House Intel Chair Urges Biden to Declassify Information on ‘Serious National Security Threat’

The chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has called on President Joe Biden to declassify information about a “serious national security threat.”

Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, released a statement on X late Wednesday morning.

“Today, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence [HPSCI] has made available to all Members of Congress information concerning a serious national security threat,” Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said in a statement posted on X.

“I am requesting that President Biden declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, and all our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat.”

Bloomberg News reporter Erik Wasson posted on X that Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., ranking member on the HPSCI, “tells us this is not something to panic about. Says it is a ‘serious’ issue that Turner [is] right to focus on, but long-standing.”

“It’s not going to ruin your Wednesday,” Himes said, according to The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch on X.

CNN’s Haley Britzky posted on X that network reporters had learned from sources that the national security threat “is a ‘highly concerning and destabilizing’ Russian capability.”

NBC News reporter Scott Wong said that a Democrat source said the threat was “a serious issue that could lead to a destabilizing situation and a national security threat.”

“Described it as a ‘potential foreign threat’ but would not say where the threat is coming from,” Wong posted on X while sharing Turner’s statement.

Turner late Tuesday sent a dear colleague letter noting the committee had voted to make information about “an urgent matter with regard to a destabilizing foreign military capability that should be known by all Congressional Policy Makers,” The Hill reported.

Lawmakers are invited to the committee’s sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) space to review the information over the rest of the week, according to the letter obtained by The Hill.

During a White House briefing on Wednesday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday at the White House said he was “surprised” Turner went public with the information.

Sullivan said he had reached out to the “Gang of Eight” in Congress to discuss the situation,

The Gang of Eight includes the leaders of each of the two parties from both the Senate and House of Representatives, and the chairs and ranking minority members of both the Senate Committee and House Committee for intelligence.