Unnamed CIA lawyer's memo

When the CIA got caught spying on Senate staffers working on the 6,000 page torture report, John Brennan, who heads the agency, denied the transgression. "As far as the allegations of the CIA hacking into computers, nothing could be further from the truth," he said on March 11, 2014. "That's beyond the scope of reason." Four months later, the CIA Inspector General found that the CIA did, in fact, improperly spy on the Senate intelligence committee. After that, Brennan apologized.

Now the public can read an extraordinary, recently released memo written by the unnamed CIA lawyer who led the effort to improperly monitor Senate overseers, outraging Senator Dianne Feinstein and prompting calls for a new CIA director. The document gives insight into the CIA's tortured logic for its actions and it raises new questions about Brennan's truthfulness in March of last year.

The CIA Lawyer Who Led a Secret Effort to Spy on the Senate