Maine’s two U.S. Senators were among those on the Senate Intelligence Committee who questioned CIA Inspector General-nominee Peter Thomson Wednesday about his independence from the Trump administration.
Both Republican Susan Collins and independent Angus King directed pointed questions at Thomson about whether he would carry out his duties independently from the White House if he were to be confirmed. King criticized Thomson for his response to a question from Collins about a previous Intelligence IG who was fired by President Trump for providing a whistleblower complaint to the Committee.
“You are not helping yourself by obfuscating and avoiding these questions,” King said. “You also avoided Senator Collins' question because it was exactly the right question. Everybody in the country knows what happened in that case. It’s a very simple question, should that complaint have been forwarded to Congress? Yes or No?”
Thomson also testified that the White House has never given him a “loyalty test” as a condition of being selected as nominee for the cia inspector general post.
