Homeland Security Democrats respond to US President Donald Trump retaliation plan

Marine One, with US President Donald Trump aboard, flies by the Washington Monument May 19, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

US Democrats at the House Homeland Security Committee have expressed concern about an alleged retaliatory plan launched by the White House to counter a program sharing information on cyber attacks.

Ranking Democrats in the committee reacted on Tuesday, a week after a source with knowledge of a White House meeting on the plan leaked details to Foreign Policy magazine.

"We are deeply concerned by reports of plots within the White House to make false statements about a critical cyber security information sharing program in an effort to draw attention away from the president’s reckless decision to share classified information with Russian officials," said ranking member Bennie Thompson and committee member Cedric Richmond in a letter to the White House.

The two Democrats also called on the White House to provide a log of meetings from May 17, the date the administration allegedly held the meeting to devise the plan as well as any notes or documents shared at relevant meetings.

The White House has said it is not aware of any such meeting or plan.

Bag of crazy cats

The magazine said the plan was intended to shift focus from the fact that US President Donald Trump shared with top Russian officials code-word intelligence reportedly provided by Israel.

The outlet further noted that the program launched by the Department of Homeland Security was known as the Automated Indicator System (AIS) and capable of sharing information about hacking threats.

The AIS program does not handle classified secrets or data vital to national security, but rather shares information on identifying and avoiding efforts to hack private-sector systems, according to Foreign Policy magazine.

The magazine quoted a source with knowledge of the meeting as describing the alleged administration plan as a "bag of crazy cats."

The two House Democrats, meanwhile, described the reported plan as "deeply troubling" and "craven and nonsensical — even for this administration."

The US intelligence community concluded in January that Russia tried to influence the presidential election in favor of Trump, including by launching an extensive hacking campaign against senior Democrats.

The Kremlin has categorically denied the allegation. Trump has also rejected the accusations as “baseless” and called the FBI probe a “witch hunt.”