Attorney General William Barr announced his intention last month to evaluate the origins of the FBI probe into links between Moscow and the 2016 Trump campaign. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Congress Top Intel official indicates Congress will be apprised of Barr review

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The country’s No. 2 intelligence official indicated Tuesday that the clandestine community would comply with congressional requests to inform lawmakers about the extent of Attorney General William Barr's probe into the origins of the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign.

House and Senate Intelligence committee leaders have expressed concerns to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats in recent weeks that Barr will seek to declassify national security secrets, and risk exposing intelligence gathering techniques.


“We spend every day being responsible both to the executive branch and to the oversight committee. I’m confident that as this unfolds, we’ll work to make sure that we can fulfill both our responsibilities,” Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence, told POLITICO when asked about a letter sent last week by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

However, she stopped short of offering a firm “yes” because the review “hasn’t unfolded yet.” Barr announced his intention last month to evaluate the origins of the FBI probe into links between Moscow and the 2016 Trump campaign, which later was assumed by special counsel Robert Mueller.

“I can’t speculate on whether it’s going to be easy or hard … we know how to respond to both our oversight and to the executive branch and protect the interests and our responsibilities to each,” Gordon said during an interview on the sidelines of the 2019 GEOINT Symposium, a gathering of U.S. intelligence officials and personnel.

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Last month, President Donald Trump granted Barr sweeping authority to declassify any material he needs to conduct the review. In a statement, Coats said the spy community would comply with the order but warned Barr that releasing “highly-sensitive classified information” could damage national security.

But that promise hasn’t stopped congressional Democrats from raising concerns over the examination’s potential impact.

Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, also sent a letter to Coats — along with heads of the FBI, CIA and NSA — that urged them to inform the panel and its House counterpart if Barr's efforts threatened their agencies' morale, independence or capabilities.

Gordon said that while the evaluation is just beginning, Coats and the agency chiefs “absolutely understand our responsibilities to our craft and to the women and men of intelligence.”

“Independent of offers by others to inform them of a problem — we will make sure that we protect those interests and those equities,” she told POLITICO.

As for the review itself — which Coats was informed of during a conversation with Barr — neither the attorney general, nor the Justice Department has offered guidance on what materials might be requested or when the effort would conclude, according to Gordon.

“It was neither appropriate nor did we ask for them to say exactly how they would” carry out the task, she said, adding she wasn’t privy to any prior disagreement between the intelligence community and DOJ that led Barr to request Trump’s broad declassification order.

Gordon said the review doesn’t “fundamentally” alter the clandestine community’s responsibilities or operations.

“In the absence of something untoward that happens … I’m going to presume, as the DNI did, that it is effected properly, with a protection of the unique role that we play, with an understanding that intelligence is different from law enforcement,” she told POLITICO.

She predicted that when the review is conducted the “government will be proud of the collective work.”