(Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, sent CIA Director John Ratcliffe a very brief and cryptic public letter this week, urging him to reply to a classified letter he also sent.
“I write to alert you to a classified letter I sent you earlier today, in which I express deep concerns about CIA activities,” Wyden wrote to Ratcliffe – a former Republican congressman and close ally of President Donald Trump.
Wyden, who is also the longest-serving member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, sparked alarm with his letter and raised further speculation about the whistleblower complaint regarding Tulsi Gabbard – the former progressive Democrat turned Trump’s controversial director of national intelligence.
Steve Herman, the former White House bureau chief for Voice of America, reacted to the letter by writing, “The CIA is up to something and Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who is the longest serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, doesn’t like it but can’t tell us about it.”
Independent journalist Matthew Yglesias added, “I think if you read between the lines here you get the sense that Senator Wyden would like to see some public questions asked about something happening at the CIA.”
While many pundits and observers noted Wyden’s letter could be about almost anything, with some pointing to U.S. operations in Syria or Venezuela, many suggested it had to do with the complaint filed to the Intelligence Community Inspector General accusing DNI Gabbard of withholding classified information for political purposes, something Gabbard has denied.
Below are some additional reactions:
Sitting U.S. senators don’t make letters such as this one public unless they feel a paper trail is needed to inform the public. Not great. Really not great. https://t.co/CE79FWgpSN
— Charlotte Clymer
(@cmclymer) February 4, 2026
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