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Obama adm refuses to pursue criminal investigation of CIA spying on Senate staffers
The Department of Justice has officially ended its criminal probe concerning allegations of spying and document stealing involving the United States Senate and the CIA.
On Thursday this week, a DOJ spokesperson confirmed to McClatchy  that the Justice Dept. won’t pursue any further its investigation  into whether Senate Intelligence Committee staffers took  classified documents from a secure facility, nor a related probe  concerning allegations that the CIA spied on those same  congressional workers.
"The department carefully reviewed the matters referred to us  and did not find sufficient evidence to warrant a criminal  investigation," spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement  sent to the news agency.

Earlier this year in March, the CIA alleged that Senate staffers  working on a controversial, yet-to-be-published report concerning  the agency’s use of torture tactics after the September 11, 2001  terrorist attacks had improperly removed classified documents  from a protected site and brought them illegally to their Capitol  Hill offices. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), the chair of  the Senate Intelligence Committee working on that report, in turn  fired back and said that the CIA has been secretly monitoring the  computer use of lawmakers and staff members involved.
During an unannounced speech on the floor of Congress that month,  Feinstein said she had "grave concerns that the CIA's search  may well have violated the separation of powers principles  embodied in the US Constitution.”

There is“no legitimate reason to allege to the Justice  Department that Senate staff may have committed a  crime,”Feinstein said, adding that she viewed the CIA’s  request for an investigation as a“potential effort to  intimidate this staff.”
“I am deeply dismayed that some members of the Senate have  decided to make spurious allegations about CIA actions that are  wholly unsupported by the facts,”CIA Director John Brennan  responded to the senator. “I am very confident that the  appropriate authorities reviewing this matter will determine  where wrongdoing, if any, occurred in either the executive branch  or legislative branch.”

11.07.2014
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