Senate confirms CIA lawyer

The Senate voted 95-4 Thursday to confirm President Obama’s nominee to be the head lawyer at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Caroline Krass will now serve as general counsel of the CIA.

{mosads}At the same time, senators are battling with the CIA over accusations that the agency violated the government’s separation of power under the Constitution by removing a file from the Senate Intelligence Committee’s computers.

Earlier this week, Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA of snooping on computers that Senate investigators used to compile a 6,300-page report on the agency’s interrogation and detention programs.

The CIA has said committee staffers shouldn’t have brought a copy of the report to Capitol Hill without permission.

If this matter is investigated, Krass could be charged with defending the CIA.

Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) voted against her nomination.

Sen. Mark Udall (Colo.) had threatened to hold her nomination until his questions on the internal CIA review were answered, but in the end he voted for her confirmation.

“We need to correct the record on the CIA’s coercive detention and interrogation program and declassify the Senate Intelligence Committee’s exhaustive study of it,” Udall said Thursday. “I released my hold on Caroline Krass’s nomination today and voted for her to help change the direction of the agency.”

— Jeremy Herb contributed to this article.