The Senate Intelligence Committee has sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking that it open an investigation into whether TikTok misled U.S. lawmakers about China-based employees of its parent company, ByteDance, accessing American user data.

The letter, signed by committee chairman Senator Mark Warner and vice chairman Senator Marco Rubio, cites “repeated misrepresentations by TikTok concerning its data security, data processing, and corporate governance practices.” (Disclosure: In a former life, I held policy positions at Facebook.)

John Ratcliffe, the Texas congressman whose bid to be director of national intelligence fell apart last summer amid evidence he exaggerated his biography, promised the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday that if confirmed he would “speak truth to power” and protect spy agencies from political pressure.

The first hearing set to take place after the Senate returned from a coronavirus-induced hiatus is the Senate Intelligence Committee's confirmation hearing for Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, President Trump's nominee for the director of national intelligence position.

Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) will at last get his confirmation hearing to be President Trump’s next director of national intelligence — a moment delayed for weeks by a coronavirus pandemic that shut down much of the country.

Ratcliffe is expected to be grilled by members of both parties on the Senate Intelligence Committee over whether he will be an independent voice for intelligence.

Critics say Trump is seeking to install a loyalist with Ratcliffe.

The Senate Intelligence Committee released a bipartisan report on Thursday, criticizing the Obama administration for being unprepared to combat Russia’s election interference in 2016 and for fumbling the response.

The committee’s 54-page heavily redacted report, the third installment in the committee’s investigation into the Kremlin’s foreign influence campaign in 2016, “found the U.S. government was not well-postured to counter Russian election interference activity with a full range of readily-available policy options.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s decision to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. has ignited an internal Republican firefight over the fate of the committee’s Russia probe, as the panel’s GOP chairman showed no signs of backing down despite fierce criticism from many of his colleagues that it was time to move on.

The sudden infighting threatened to undermine support for the Senate’s Russia investigation, which is the sole bipartisan probe in Congress into Russian interference in the 2016 election and has been widely praised as operating with little public drama.

Breaking with their House Republican counterparts, the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that the intelligence community properly concluded in January of last year that Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to help Donald Trump when Moscow meddled in the 2016 election.

Gina Haspel would be first woman to lead agency once her appointment is approved by the full Senate, as expected.

The Senate Intelligence committee voted on Wednesday in favor of Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be CIA director, and she is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate as soon as next week.