WASHINGTON — The Senate Parliamentarian has vindicated former Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein against charges that the California Democrat violated committee rules by sending the full, classified version of her panel’s torture report out to the executive branch.
“There’s nothing there. They’re taking no action,” Feinstein told HuffPost Tuesday.
The news marks a victory for Feinstein in a short-lived but heated partisan feud kickstarted by newly minted Senate Intelligence Committee chair Richard Burr (R-N.C.) upon taking over the panel’s reins in January. Burr, who has made no secret of his disdain for Feinstein’s massive study on the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program, sparked outrage from Democratic colleagues when he suggested Feinstein had violated committee protocol by sending out the report in December, just before relinquishing control of the panel to Republicans.
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The 500-page executive summary of the torture study was released in December. With Burr’s takeover, few believe the full, 6,000-plus page document will be released, as the longtime intelligence committee member has expressed support for the torture tactics and blasted Feinstein’s study.
Burr has additionally said he intends to return to the agency the fiercely contested internal CIA review of the torture program that supposedly aligns with the harsh conclusions of Feinstein’s torture study — a document that Feinstein and her investigators have fought fiercely to keep in committee hands.
The White House declined a HuffPost request for comment.
