Report: Intelligence community transparency key on foreign threats to U.S. elections

The U.S. intelligence community need to be transparent during this year's general election when dealing with "malign foreign threats," a national security attorney and analyst said in a recent report.

The detailed report by Carrie Cordero, a Robert M. Gates senior fellow and Center for a New American Security general counsel, offered three recommendations for the nation's intelligence community: continue to work behind the scenes, adhere to "proper order of operations" and "lean in to declassification", consistent with protection of sources and methods.

"Once appropriate policymakers have been briefed, and if there is reasonable consensus among the intelligence community chiefs with relevant expertise and analysis responsibilities, the [director of national intelligence] should declassify significant intelligence assessments, to the extent possible consistent with protection of sensitive sources and methods, and release them publicly," Cordero's report said about the third recommendation.

The report was published July 23 by the Center for New American Security.

Cordero is a law professor at Georgetown University who spent much of her previous career in public service. Her lengthy list of public service includes national security counsel, Director of National Intelligence senior associate general counsel and U.S. Department of Justice attorney advisor.

During her time with DOJ, Corderor was active in counter terrorism and counterintelligence investigations and made frequent appearances before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Foreign intervention is far from the only threat to this year's election, Cordero said. She also referred to the "charged political environment," a global pandemic, historic unemployment, and "a summer of civic unrest and violence."

Cordero's report did refer extensively to foreign intervention during the 2016 general election, a time when "policymakers and intelligence community leaders were reluctant to release information publicly regarding the activities of the Russian government intended to affect the election."

"This year, a new playbook is needed to ensure that the intelligence community, policymakers, and the public are in sync regarding transparency expectations about foreign threats to the election," Cordero wrote.