The White House reached out to the top senators on the Intelligence Committee on Monday night to apologize for not letting them know about the prisoner swap before the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters on Tuesday that National Deputy Security Adviser Tony Blinken called her on Monday night.
“He apologized for it and said it was an oversight,” Feinstein said, clarifying that he didn’t necessarily use the word “oversight.”
Feinstein lamented that she didn’t know about the prisoner exchange ahead of time.
“It’s very disappointing that there was not a level of trust sufficient to justify alerting us,” she said.
Sen. Saxby Chamblis (R-GA), the ranking member of the Intelligence committee, said that a “high-ranking” White House official apologized to him in a Monday night phone call, according to Buzzfeed.
“They said it just been called to their attention that I had not received advanced notification of this transaction,” he said.
He was not pleased that he had not been updated about Bergdahl’s release.
“I haven’t had a conversation with the White House on this issue in a year and a half. If that’s keeping us in the loop than the administration is more arrogant than I thought,” he said.
