Brian Murphy, former intelligence chief, stated in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee that he was told by department leadership to exaggerate the roles of far-left groups in summer protests in Portland, Oregon, regarding police brutality against African Americans and the death of George Floyd. During these protests, he said that he was told to make sure that intelligence assessments were in line with President Trump’s views on far-left extremist groups. He also said that he was told to exaggerate the number of illegal border crossings from Mexico.

Murphy submitted a complaint on September 8 saying that Chad Wolf, President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief, told him to not circulate assessments done on the possibility of Russians meddling in the 2016 election because doing so “made the President look bad,” according to Reuters.com. Wolf also asked Murphy to play down white supremacist activity in the United States. According to Murphy’s complaint, Wolf told him "to cease providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference in the United States, and instead start reporting on interference activities by China and Iran." In the complaint, Murphy says that this request started with White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien.

Murphy was questioned about how in his complaint he talks about DHS officials bullying him to inflate the number of people coming from Mexico into the United States who were planning to attack the United States.

Murphy’s complaint was originally an anonymous 24-page whistleblower complaint that he issued over the summer. The complaint said that committee leadership, including Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, was trying to “censor” and “manipulate” intelligence in the months before the presidential election. In this complaint, he also mentioned that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had submitted congressional testimony that was a “deliberate submission of false material information.”

An Intelligence Committee Spokeswoman said that they welcomed Murphy’s testimony and that the results of the investigation will be shared with the public. She also said, “We expect the Department of Homeland Security to make available additional witnesses and fully comply with its legal obligation to produce documents in response to the Committee’s subpoena,” according to USNews.com.

The committee had already heard from 12 witnesses concerning Murphy’s allegations according to Murphy’s lawyer Mark Zaid.

In Murphy’s performance review done by a DHS supervisor for the October 2019-September 2020 year, he received a high score of 485 out of a possible 500.

The DHS had no comment after the testimony, but the agency denied Murphy’s claims in his complaint according to ABC News.

Murphy was originally supposed to testify in September, but it was delayed because there was a dispute over Murphy and his legal team having access to classified information that was relevant to Murphy’s complaint.

Murphy was reassigned from his position at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). However, he still works for the department.