Feb. 14 (UPI) — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, on Wednesday requested President Joe Biden declassify information regarding what the lawmaker said was a serious threat to national security that is related to Russia.
Congressional leaders are slated to meet with national security officials Thursday to discuss the matter.
“I am requesting that President Biden declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the administration and our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat,” Turner wrote in a brief statement made available to media.
Turner also said the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence made “information concerning a serious national security threat” available to all members of Congress.
The statement comes after Turner on Tuesday sent letters to congressional colleagues saying the House Intelligence Committee voted to provide all members of Congress with information regarding an “urgent matter with regard to destabilizing foreign military capability that should be known by all congressional policy makers.”
The information shared with members of Congress “is, in fact, a highly concerning and destabilizing” capability by Russia that “we were recently made aware of,” CNN reported a source saying. Other news outlets, including ABC News and NBC News, also cited unnamed sources as pointing to Russia as being the source of the threat.
President Biden’s administration earlier in the week had scheduled a meeting Thursday with eight congressional leaders to discuss the matter, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Wednesday.
He said Turner is among those invited to attend the scheduled meeting, but he refused to elaborate further on the meeting or its subject matter.
