Tester on CIA spying admission: ‘These actions cannot stand’

(U.S. Senate) – Senator Jon Tester today released the following statement after CIA Director John Brennan admitted that his agency improperly searched Senate computers in an effort to derail an oversight investigation into the agency’s actions:

“Spying on the U.S. Senate violates the separation of powers and everything our Founding Fathers stood for. Folks are sick and tired of intelligence agencies running amok, and this only makes things worse. These actions cannot stand, and I will keep working with my colleagues to make sure that the Intelligence Community starts respecting civil liberties.”

Tester is also demanding that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper address reports that his agency misused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to obtain Americans’ electronic records without a warrant.

Tester recently included provisions in the Department of Homeland Security’s funding bill to strengthen Americans’ privacy rights by blocking a national license plate database and requiring the department to report on its use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.