House Intel Chairman announces ‘serious national security threat,’ sources say it is related to Russia

Washington
CNN
 — 

House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner has made information concerning a “serious national security threat” available to all members of Congress to review, the committee said on Wednesday.

While Turner and the White House remained vague on what the threat entailed, two sources and a US official tell CNN the threat is related to Russia. Multiple sources familiar with the intelligence characterized it as “very sensitive.”

One of the sources who has seen the intelligence confirmed that “it is, in fact, a highly concerning and destabilizing” Russian capability “that we were recently made aware of.”

Turner is calling on President Joe Biden to declassify “all information relating to this threat.”

But while a vague statement posted on X by the House intelligence committee, along with a void of immediate further information, raised initial concerns, other top leaders in Congress sought to soothe public anxiety. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday afternoon that there was no cause for alarm.

“We just want to assure everyone steady hands are at the wheel,” Johnson said. “We’re working on it and there’s no need for alarm.”

Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House committee, said the intelligence is not “a cause for panic.”

“As to whether more can be declassified about this issue, that is a worthwhile discussion but it is not a discussion to be had in public,” Himes said in a statement.

The committee’s Senate counterparts, meanwhile, said they have been “rigorously tracking this issue from the start.”

“In the meantime, we must be cautious about potentially disclosing sources and methods that may be key to preserving a range of options for U.S. action,” the statement from Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio said.

The White House also signaled some frustration with Turner for going public with the warnings ahead of a planned meeting national security officials were schedule to have with top lawmakers on Thursday. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said during a press briefing Wednesday that he was “a bit surprised Turner came out publicly today,” preempting the meeting schedule for Thursday.

“I reached out to see Turner,” Sullivan said. “Turner has gone out publicly. I’m going to go see Turner tomorrow. That’s where I want to leave things for today.”

Sullivan declined to elaborate on the nature of the threat. “I’m not in a position to say anything further from this podium at this time,” he said.

While the Wednesday warning was vague, the United States has long been concerned about Russian military capabilities and the country’s destabilizing influence in Europe and around the world as the war in Ukraine continues, with the prospects of additional US aid being sent to Kyiv shaky.

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Earlier Wednesday, Turner sent his Congressional colleagues a letter saying the urgent matter is “with regard to a destabilizing foreign military capability.”

Turner said in the letter to his congressional colleagues that the House Intelligence Committee voted on February 13 to make certain information available for lawmakers to review and says members have time to view this between Wednesday and Friday.

Sullivan emphasized the Biden administration has “gone further and in more creative, more strategic ways, dealt with the declassification of intelligence in the national interest of the United States than any administration in history.”

“So you definitely are not going to find an unwillingness to do that when it’s in our national security interest to do so,” he said.

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional information.