The rise of Donald Trump and his open warfare with the American intelligence community has inspired a record number of former CIA agents to run for Congress as Democrats. This trend has alarmed Russians and Julian Assange, who have lashed out at what they see as a Deep State plot to topple Trump.
Now, Democrats with intelligence ties who are running for Congress fear that Republicans may be illegally using their security clearance forms, known as SF-86s, to get damaging information that can be used in their campaigns.
Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat running for Congress in Virginia, has publicly accused a Paul Ryan-aligned Super PAC of illegally obtaining a copy of her security clearance application form, which includes deeply personal information. The Super PAC then published the form. Republicans claim they obtained the information through a "Freedom of Information Act request," which Spanberger’s lawyer says is a lie.
A Michigan Democrat is expressing fear that the same will happen to her. Elissa Slotkin is a former CIA analyst and senior Pentagon official who is running against Republican Mike Bishop in a suburban and rural district north and west of Detroit.
Slotkin tells the Daily Beast that she worries the Trumpist Republicans will do the same to her.
“Obviously I was very disappointed and surprised they had obtained and then leaked a copy of someone’s SF-86, so you have to assume they’re willing to do the same thing with any other candidate that has a security clearance,” Slotkin said. “These are the kinds of techniques we have to assume our foreign adversaries use, and have used... and it’s just deeply concerning that an American political organization would absorb and adopt those techniques in our own American democracy."
Slotkin has appealed to Republicans to disavow these tactics and not use them in her own district, Michigan's 8th, where Ryan's Super PAC has been active in trying to buttress Bishop.