Spy chief's role in espionage bill questioned

The director of national intelligence is supposed to be nonpolitical, but some lawmakers think the White House used McConnell for partisan purposes.


WASHINGTON -- As the debate over new espionage legislation intensified last week, senior Democrats in Congress gathered around a speakerphone late Thursday to work out with Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell what they thought were the final pieces of a deal. Instead, the deal unraveled, according to officials involved. Compromise language was missing, provisions that both sides had agreed to strip out were back in, and -- according to officials familiar with the exchange -- McConnell alluded to intense pressure he was getting from "the other side."

McConnell ended up getting the changes he wanted -- new authority that significantly expands U.S. spy agencies' ability to intercept overseas e-mails and phone calls. But his unusually high-profile role in the negotiations appears to have strained his relationships with key Democrats and has prompted questions about whether the nation's top intelligence official, who is supposed to operate above the political fray, had allowed himself to be used for partisan purposes.

"I think that the admiral negotiated in good faith," said Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who was involved in negotiations with McConnell throughout the week. "But I think he got caught up there at the end in the politics of it."...