Motion to Discharge
Floor Speech
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Mr. HAGERTY. Madam President, I rise today to discuss my serious concerns about the judgment and the temperament of the nominee Colin Kahl, the controversial nominee to be the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the third highest position in our Department of Defense.
On April 13, 2021, I, along with 17 other Senators, wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting an investigation into whether Kahl had improperly disclosed classified information. We also asked the majority leader not to advance Kahl's nomination to the floor until the FBI completes its investigation. Yet here we stand.
The 18 Senators who signed these letters include Senators who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the Senate Armed Services Committee.
As Senators, the Constitution charges us with providing advice and consent, and so I stand here today because the Senate deserves to have these questions answered so that we may properly discharge our duties.
I fear my Democratic colleagues want to force this nominee through before we know all the facts--facts which may be incredibly damning to his nomination.
Here is what we do know. As a U.S. Government employee with a Top Secret security clearance, Colin Kahl signed a classified information nondisclosure agreement. In fact, he likely signed many of them during his tenure in government. This document binds government employees in perpetuity to protect classified information under U.S. laws, regulations, and Executive orders.
These classified information nondisclosure agreements don't come with footnotes. They don't come with fine print that says you are only obligated to protect classified information when it is a President you like or when it is a President that belongs to the political party you agree with.
Mr. Kahl signed this document to protect classified information in perpetuity, period. Rather than uphold the oath that he took to his Nation and to his government, Kahl decided to recklessly disclose sensitive information to secure political points on Twitter.
Some of the information that Kahl appears to have leaked--internal deliberations of the National Security Council--is of a category that even Senators and Senate staff with the highest security clearances are almost always denied access.
In December of 2017, Kahl publicly bragged that he confirmed the disclosure to the media of classified planning for military operations in North Korea with ``multiple sources inside the Administration.''
You can see right here his tweet:
There is a contingent at the White House that believes a limited strike is viable and the US can control escalation by threatening regime change if Kim Jong Un retaliates.
This is incredible.
Continuing on that same thread, he says:
I've heard this separately from multiple sources inside the Administration.
In other words, if the intelligence services of North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, and other adversaries were working to corroborate the accuracy of this leaked information, Kahl saved them the trouble by working with ``multiple sources inside the Administration'' to confirm this leaked classified information, publicly, no less.
Let me put this in a personal perspective. When Kahl tweeted these leaks in December of 2017, I was serving as U.S. Ambassador to Japan. This was at a time when North Korea had launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles over Japan, and they had also detonated a thermonuclear warhead, putting the lives of my family, my fellow American diplomats, and more than 50,000 Active-Duty U.S. military and their families--all of us living within range of North Korea--in harm's way
At a time when tensions couldn't have been higher, Colin Kahl was willing to expose vital information to North Korea and risk American lives--all of this just to score political points. Reckless, I say.
In February and March of 2017, Kahl leaked details about a classified National Security Council meeting on counterterrorism operations in Yemen that he ``confirmed with 4 separate staffers in the room.''
Here is his message, talking about Yemen, quoting the Deputy National Security Advisor, K.T. McFarland, saying ``saddle up.''
The existence of this meeting should have been classified and certainly anything that was said during this meeting. Here it is on Twitter.
Then he follows up by saying he has ``confirmed with 4 separate staffers in the room.''
In short, Kahl used social media and other forums to leak classified information to brag about his ability to get U.S. Government employees to confirm with him the veracity of leaked classified information.
Whoever holds the third highest position at DOD must be someone who completely understands and appreciates the important nature of sensitive information and is dedicated to safeguarding it.
Yet rather than respect the responsibility that came with his access to sensitive material, Kahl recklessly shared this privileged information on Twitter for the world to see, merely to scratch political, partisan itch.
If we let this nominee slide through under these conditions, what message does it send to other ambitious national security types? Doesn't it say that leaking classified information for political reasons will be rewarded? Doesn't it encourage further disclosure of classified information? Doesn't it play right into our adversaries' hands by showing that our internal political divisions can be exploited to obtain the most sensitive information that our government keeps?
My Senate colleagues and I explained in our letter to FBI Director Wray:
The Under Secretary of Defense for Policy plays a key role in matters crucial to America's national security and should be held by a person of sound judgment and temperament-- someone who understands and respects the need to safeguard classified information and to keep national security affairs distinct and separate from partisan political activities.''
Kahl's growing record of apparent mishandling of classified information and his evasive response regarding this issue fall far short of the standards required for holding one of our nation's top national security positions.
By apparently soliciting or otherwise receiving classified information from U.S. government officials serving in national security roles and repeatedly posting such information on social media . . . Kahl demonstrated disregard for security protocols that are designed to protect our national security interests.
Kahl has shown that he is unfit to serve and his nomination should not move forward until the FBI has completed the investigation requested by me and 17 of my Senate colleagues.
I hope that all of my colleagues want to see answers to these important questions, as well, before we begin to advance his nomination.
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