House lawmakers left a classified intelligence briefing related to recent drone sightings with a consensus that likely nothing nefarious is going on in the skies — but reiterated calls for increased government transparency on the evidence that led to those conclusions.
The House Intelligence Committee received a closed-door briefing from top officials in the Justice, Defense, and Homeland Security departments Tuesday, and many lawmakers emerged from the meeting satisfied with the information shared. Lawmakers said they were assured there is no “imminent threat” posed by the drones and that most sightings are likely just manned aircraft or stars.
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“We spent a lot of time in this hearing asking the question in every way imaginable as to whether or not any of these sightings … are federal government operations, and they are not,” House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes (D-CT) told reporters. “They remain committed to their message that there is zero evidence of laws being broken by any of these drones.”
The briefing comes after the DHS released a joint statement with the FBI, the Pentagon, and the Federal Aviation Administration that more than 5,000 drone sightings have been reported in the last few weeks, resulting in about 100 investigative leads. Intelligence officials have said there is no evidence the sightings are “aligned with a foreign actor or that they had malicious intent,” raising questions about what could be causing the incidents.
Although the briefing did not generate many answers, most lawmakers said they were provided enough evidence that aligns with those statements — noting they believe there is nothing malicious happening.
“I think the FBI, the intelligence community, is taking this very seriously,” said Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA), who was in the briefing. “To date, there’s no evidence that there’s anything nefarious going on.”
The characterizations come in contradiction to President-elect Donald Trump’s suggestions earlier this week that the Biden administration may know more about the drone sightings than what is being released to the public.
“For some reason, they don’t want to comment, and I think they’d be better off saying what it is,” Trump told reporters Monday. “Our military knows. Our president knows, and for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense. I can’t imagine it’s the enemy because if it was the enemy, they’d blast it.”
While some Republicans echoed sentiments that they would like more clarity on the matter, several pushed back on Trump’s claims that the Biden administration is withholding information.
“It just seems like they themselves don’t have answers, as they’ve acknowledged,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told the Washington Examiner. “I don’t have any proof or evidence to dispute what they’re saying. So if I did, I’d have a different posture, and I may down the road, but as of now, I don’t think anyone knows the answer, which is what’s I think driving more of the concern.”
The Senate has not yet had an intelligence briefing on the drone sightings, and as of Tuesday, there is none scheduled.
Meanwhile, some lawmakers acknowledged that the government should be more transparent about the information it does have and how it came to those conclusions.
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For example, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) said he was not yet satisfied with the information received by the intelligence community, noting that he would like to see the data that led to conclusions the drones are likely just manned aircraft.
“Show us the data,” Krishnamoorthi told reporters. “Show us how it’s manned aircraft. That’s kind of my request of the government, and hopefully, they do that. I think that the public needs to understand and see for themselves what these government officials have concluded.”
