From PBS NewsHour.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., questioned Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe about fundraising emails for President Donald Trump that allegedly offered national security briefing information in exchange for donations.

“As a national security briefing member you’ll receive my private national security briefings,” Kelly read. “Director Gabbard and Director Ratcliffe, do you think… supporters of the president should be able to pay to receive his national security briefings?”

Ratcliffe responded that he was “not aware” that anything like that happened, and Gabbard said she was “not familiar with that document.”

Top U.S. intelligence officials were testifying Wednesday before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at an open hearing on worldwide threats. It’s the first of two days of hearings on Capitol Hill surrounding the intelligence community’s release of its annual assessment of threats to national security.

The Senate hearing comes a day after National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned over President Donald Trump’s war in Iran. Kent, a former Green Beret and CIA official known for his past ties to right-wing extremists, said in a statement Tuesday that Iran "posed no imminent threat" to the U.S. and he could not "in good conscience" support the war.

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