U.S. LEGAL NEWS
DECEMBER 17, 2020 2:30 PM UPDATED 30 MINUTES AGO

U.S. whistleblower was pressed to exaggerate leftist role in urban protests, lawyer says

By Mark Hosenball
3 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former acting chief of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence office has told Congress that DHS leaders pressed him to overstate illegal border crossings from Mexico and overplay the role of far left groups in violence during anti-government protests last summer, his lawyer said.

In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, former intelligence chief Brian Murphy accused department leadership of urging him to “blame Far Left groups in an exaggerated fashion” for violence during summer protests in Portland, Oregon, according to lawyer Mark Zaid.

In closed-door committee hearings last Friday and Monday, Murphy acknowledged that Far Left protesters were responsible for some of the violence, Zaid said.

In a Sept. 8 whistleblower complaint, Murphy accused President Donald Trump’s acting DHS chief, Chad Wolf, of having told him to hold back on circulating assessments of the threat of Russian interference in the approaching Nov. 3 election in part because it “made the President look bad.” Wolf also asked Murphy to play down U.S. white supremacist activity, the complaint said.

Zaid said the committee questioned Murphy about allegations in his complaint that DHS officials pressured him to support greatly exaggerated claims about the number of people entering from Mexico suspected of plotting attacks on the United States.

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