Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee during his confirmation hearing, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020 on Captiol Hill in Washington.
“Rhetoric and political ideology cannot drive intelligence reports and it should not predetermine the actions of any federal department," Sen. Gary Peters, top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security committee, said at the start of the hearing.
In his whistleblower complaint, Murphy said that, as far as he was aware, the DHS intelligence division “never knowingly” collected information about journalists though it did track media reports that appeared to include leaked material.
Wolf noted that DHS lawyers dispute the GAO finding, which he pointed out is non-binding in any case.
It was a part of a wide-ranging confirmation hearing for a nominee who has been criticized over his agency’s handling of civil unrest, the coronavirus and immigration.