--- title: Gina Haspel Confirmation Hearing Is May 9 description: Outside groups are upping the pressure on Senators to reject President Donald Trump's controversial nominee to direct the Central Intelligence Agency, Gina Haspel, ahead of... canonical: https://time.com/5246860/anti-torture-groups-are-pushing-congress-to-block-trumps-nominee-to-head-the-cia/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-19T17:01:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:01:38.212Z article:section: Politics og:title: Anti-Torture Groups Are Pushing Congress to Block Trump's Nominee to Head the CIA og:description: "Endorsing Ms. Haspel would reward torture, and send a disastrous message the world over." og:url: https://time.com/5246860/anti-torture-groups-are-pushing-congress-to-block-trumps-nominee-to-head-the-cia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a0dfef759a54a7f/69892aae096a9405896a1d10/gina-hapsel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4213 og:image:height: 2370 og:image:alt: Trump CIA, Langley, USA - 21 Mar 2017 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Anti-Torture Groups Are Pushing Congress to Block Trump's Nominee to Head the CIA twitter:description: "Endorsing Ms. Haspel would reward torture, and send a disastrous message the world over." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a0dfef759a54a7f/69892aae096a9405896a1d10/gina-hapsel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Anti-Torture Groups Are Pushing Congress to Block Trump's Nominee to Head the CIA > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=53e4386a-786f-46b7-8a5b-439357278b92&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 19, 2018 5:01 PM UTC  CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel joined the CIA in 1985, has been chief of station at CIA outposts abroad. President Donald Trump tweeted March 13, 2018, that he would nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the new secretary of state and that he would nominate Haspel to replace him. She has extensive overseas experience, including several stints as chief of station at outposts abroad Trump CIA, Langley, USA - 21 Mar 2017 CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel joined the CIA in 1985, has been chief of station at CIA outposts abroad. President Donald Trump tweeted March 13, 2018, that he would nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the new secretary of state and that he would nominate Haspel to replace him. She has extensive overseas experience, including several stints as chief of station at outposts abroad Trump CIA, Langley, USA - 21 Mar 2017 CIA/AP/REX/Shutterstock by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 19, 2018 5:01 PM UTC Outside groups are upping the pressure on Senators to reject President Donald Trump’s controversial nominee to direct the Central Intelligence Agency, Gina Haspel, ahead of her May 9 confirmation hearing. Republican Sen. Richard Burr and Democratic Sen. Mark Warner announced on Thursday that a public confirmation hearing would be held after the Senate breaks for a late-April recess. Trump announced that he’d tapped Haspel to replace Director Mike Pompeo, whom he selected to become Secretary of State, in March, but the president did not send the formal nomination paperwork to Congress until this week. Haspel has a long history at the CIA, where she’s served since 1985, but her connections to an agency “black site” where detainees were tortured and a decision within the CIA to destroy evidence of interrogations has led to fierce backlash from outside watchers. On Thursday, a diverse collection of more than [40 national advocacy and civil liberties groups](https://www.cvt.org/sites/default/files/attachments/u93/downloads/Haspel%20Opposition%20Sign%20on%20Letter%20FINAL.pdf) sent a letter to all 100 members of Senate calling on them to oppose Haspel’s confirmation. The groups say they have “grave concerns” about Haspel’s role in the U.S. torture program and believe that any vote related to her nomination would be seen as a “referendum on torture.” “Some answer these grave concerns by claiming Ms. Haspel is a decorated intelligence professional, experienced, and well-respected at the CIA. That may all be true,” [the letter reads](https://www.cvt.org/sites/default/files/attachments/u93/downloads/Haspel%20Opposition%20Sign%20on%20Letter%20FINAL.pdf). “But responsibility for torture is an extraordinary moral offense that ordinary kinds of qualifications simply cannot overcome.” Dozens of Virginian elected officials joined with faith leaders and torture victim advocates to send a similar letter to Warner and Sen. Tim Kaine, also of Virginia. “Endorsing Ms. Haspel would reward torture, and send a disastrous message the world over — including to survivors of torture — that there is no accountability whatsoever for those who commit these grave human rights violations,” [they wrote.](https://www.cvt.org/sites/default/files/attachments/u101/downloads/CVT%20VA%20Senators%20Letter.April%202018.pdf) Two dozen t[orture rehabilitation centers have also signed on to a letter](https://www.cvt.org/sites/default/files/attachments/u93/downloads/NCTTP%20Haspel%20Letter%20FINAL.pdf) to oppose her nomination. In that document, the groups detail the suffering torture victims endure including chronic pain, sleep disorders and depression. “That is the legacy of torture — the torture in which Ms. Haspel reportedly was intimately involved and the torture Ms. Haspel reportedly participated in covering up through the destruction of videotape evidence,” the letter reads. Scott Roehm, the director of the [Center for Victims of Torture](https://www.cvt.org/who-we-are/staff/scott-roehm)‘s D.C. office, says the opposition to her nomination is diverse and widespread groups and groups like his will continue to pressure lawmakers to reject Haspel’s nomination in the lead up to the hearing. “The public expects that the Senate isn’t going to promote to lead the CIA somebody who is deeply complicit in torture,” says Roehm. “The closer the hearing and nomination draw, the more that message is going to be clear.” Haspel’s confirmation hearing had been gearing up to be a contentious one already. Senators have expressed concern about the role she played in destroying torture-related evidence since her name was first floated. Several lawmakers have said they plan to press her about her links to the U.S. torture program in the public forum. Others have called for the declassification of records about her background. A trio of Democratic senators on the Intelligence Committee have repeatedly asked the CIA director to declassify the material. “In the absence of any meaningful declassification of her career, this public campaign on behalf of Ms. Haspel does a great disservice to the American people,” the Senators [wrote in a recent letter](https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=EAA19329-AD87-4FC0-A107-A53CB93B40D1). The senators said the more they review classified information, the more “disturbed” they are about Haspel’s actions and the CIA’s unwillingness to let the public see for itself. “Under these circumstances, it is impossible for the Senate to properly fulfill its constitutional obligation to ‘advise and consent’ on her nomination,” write Democrats Dianne Feinstein of California, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Ron Wyden of Oregon. Roehm agrees that the information should be declassified, but says “we know enough and Senators should know enough at this point to oppose her nomination. 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