Chi-SpyGate: Intel board to probe if spy agencies withheld China election secrets over politics

"Clearly, this is a scandal that's brewing," PIAB chairman Devin Nunes says after Just the News reported U.S. intelligence kept evidence hidden from lawmakers that China gained access to Americans' voter registration data on several states.

Published: March 22, 2026 10:23pm

The civilian board that oversees America's spy agencies will probe whether political bias kept intelligence analysts from sharing with Congress and President Donald Trump evidence that China meddled in elections dating to 2020, its chairman says after an explosive report by Just the News.

"We ran a decade-long investigation in the Congress into China, and so this new bombshell that you just dropped is very concerning to me, and it should be to the Congress," President's Intelligence Advisory Board Chairman Devin Nunes told the Just the News, No Noise television show.

"This information was likely around in 2019, probably in 2020. I don't know. We're going to have to unpack this and figure out why this didn't get to the Congress and why this didn't get out to the American public," Nunes said.

Nunes, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee before he left Congress to run the company that operates President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform, added: "Clearly, this is a scandal that's brewing."

Nunes was named last year by Trump to lead the PIAB, a nonpartisan body made up of distinguished civilians from the national security, political, academic, and private sectors charged with independently overseeing the Intelligence Community's day-to-day management or operational responsibilities.

Just the News earlier this week disclosed declassified documents showing Chinese intelligence gained access to multiple states' voter registration data in 2020 and conducted some voter influence efforts but chose to keep that intelligence quiet because spy agency analysts opposed Trump and his policies, even deriding the president as "that vulgarian in the Oval Office."

You can read that intelligence here.

NICM-Declassified-Cyber-Operations-Enabling-Expansive-Digital-Authoritarianism-20200407--2022.pdf

Similar revelations in 2024 that China hacked Great Britain's voter registration database led to a national outcry and reforms in that country. But in America, most policymakers have been kept in the dark.

19 intelligence reports dating back to Obama era were rescinded or revised

Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., called on Trump this week to declassify and release all evidence related to China's meddling from 2020 forward.

Nunes said a review of what happened with the China meddling allegations was directly aligned with the board's current mandates. "We've been working directly with the CIA to depoliticize all of these agencies. President Trump gave us clear direction that he wants the politicization taken out of these intelligence products," Nunes explained.

The board's effort recently prompted CIA Director John Ratcliffe to rescind or revise 19 intelligence reports the agency produced dating back to the Obama era because they were politically biased or used poor spy tradecraft, including one analysis suggesting that women who pursue traditional motherhood were at danger of becoming violent extremists.

"I think this is just the start of Director Ratcliffe trying to clean up the CIA," he said. "Obviously, we're here to help. We're held here to help all the agencies as Chair of the President's intelligence board, and we'll continue to do that."

Nunes said the declassified documents uncovered by Just the News on the China election meddling were deeply concerning because "if you don't have the — if you want to call it the truth transparency — real intelligence agencies getting the information to the policymakers and the decision makers, it's a major problem."

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