CIA Director John Brennan claims that the 2014 search of the US Senate files by the Central Intelligence Agency was an acceptable action.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The 2014 search of the US Senate files by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was acceptable action, CIA Director John Brennan stated during a hearing at the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday.

"The actions of the CIA were reasonable given the very unclear and unspecific understanding between the Committee and CIA at the time," Brennan stated.

In May 2015, several US Senators requested an apology from CIA for spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Senators argued that in January 2014, the CIA conducted an unauthorized and unprecedented search of Senate files, including the e-mails of Senate investigators who examined the CIA’s past use of torture.

During the Committee hearing, Brennan stated that the CIA did not spy on Senate computers.

However, the US Office of the Inspector General acknowledged in July 2014 that the CIA had accessed the files.

The CIA accessing the Senate files took place at the conclusion of a multiple year Intelligence Committee investigation into CIA’s practice of torture during the War on Terror.

The Intelligence Committee produced a 6,000 page final report on the CIA use of torture, and released a shorter, heavily redacted executive summary in December 2014.

Brennan opposed the release of the Senate report and denounced its findings as flawed.