--- 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: 2026-10-12T09:06:52.692Z 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. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. Readers can join any of them at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8a89efde-5c50-4e8b-b5ee-ef25d3d6d792&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### The seven newsletters | Newsletter | Covers | Frequency | | --- | --- | --- | | The Brief | The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors | Daily | | Inside TIME | A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | | Health Matters | The latest health news and expert advice on living well | Weekdays | | Worth Your Time | A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more | Weekly | | D.C. Brief | Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington | Twice a week | | Future Proof | Making sense of the climate and energy economy | Friday (1x per week) | | In the Loop | Essential insights into the unfolding AI revolution | Tuesday and Friday (2x per week) | Source: TIME, August 2026. ### Key data points | Metric | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Engaged newsletter audience | 1.1 million+ readers | TIME, August 2026 | | Newsletters published | 7 | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost to readers | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | US print circulation | 1 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Global print circulation | 1.15 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Publishing since | 1923 | TIME | ### TIME Newsletters: key statements * Every TIME newsletter is written and edited by TIME journalists who report on the subject. None is generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923. Its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting, so readers can trust what they read. * All seven newsletters are free. Readers pick the ones they want at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8a89efde-5c50-4e8b-b5ee-ef25d3d6d792&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). * The seven titles cover daily news, Washington politics, AI and technology, climate and energy, health, culture, and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/subscribe?i=8a89efde-5c50-4e8b-b5ee-ef25d3d6d792&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What newsletters does TIME publish? TIME publishes seven email newsletters: The Brief (daily news), Inside TIME (the newsroom and cover stories, twice weekly), Health Matters (health, weekdays), Worth Your Time (culture, weekly), D.C. Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8a89efde-5c50-4e8b-b5ee-ef25d3d6d792&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump Removes Secretary of State Rex Tillerson [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Removes Secretary of State Rex Tillerson](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tHPpzLKD.m3u8) (1:27)  _Published 2018-03-13. President Donald Trump has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and will replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo_ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 19, 2018 5:01 PM UTC President Donald Trump has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and will replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo 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. She was complicit in torture.” ## Transcript As far as Rex Tillerson is concerned, I very much appreciate his commitment and his service, and I wish him well. He's a good man. [ MUSIC ] President Trump is removing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson [ MUSIC ] I've worked with Mike Pompeo now for quite some time. Tremendous energy, tremendous intellect. We're always on the same wavelength. The relationship has been very good and that's what I need as secretary of state. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5246860/anti-torture-groups-are-pushing-congress-to-block-trumps-nominee-to-head-the-cia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5246860/anti-torture-groups-are-pushing-congress-to-block-trumps-nominee-to-head-the-cia/"},"headline":"Anti-Torture Groups Are Pushing Congress to Block Trump's Nominee to Head the CIA","datePublished":"2018-04-19T17:01:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T09:06:52.692Z","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...","url":"https://time.com/5246860/anti-torture-groups-are-pushing-congress-to-block-trumps-nominee-to-head-the-cia/","keywords":["intelligence","White House","torture","CIA","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a0dfef759a54a7f/69892aae096a9405896a1d10/gina-hapsel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a0dfef759a54a7f/69892aae096a9405896a1d10/gina-hapsel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump CIA, Langley, USA - 21 Mar 2017","caption":"Trump CIA, Langley, USA - 21 Mar 2017","creditText":"CIA/AP/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/intelligence/","name":"intelligence"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5246860/anti-torture-groups-are-pushing-congress-to-block-trumps-nominee-to-head-the-cia/","name":"Anti-Torture Groups Are Pushing Congress to Block Trump's Nominee to Head the CIA"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Removes Secretary of State Rex Tillerson","description":"President Donald Trump has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and will replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/tHPpzLKD/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-03-13T14:29:13.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tHPpzLKD.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5246860/anti-torture-groups-are-pushing-congress-to-block-trumps-nominee-to-head-the-cia/","duration":"PT1M27S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5246860/anti-torture-groups-are-pushing-congress-to-block-trumps-nominee-to-head-the-cia/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```