Brian Murphy (intelligence official)

Brian Murphy was the acting United States Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis from March 2018 until August 2, 2020.

[1][2][3] He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from the College of William & Mary, and a Master’s degree in Islamic studies from Columbia University.

[1] He was temporarily reassigned from that position two months later after it was alleged his office had compiled dossiers of public information about journalists who were reporting on the George Floyd protests.

Murphy asserted that DHS secretary Chad Wolf and his deputy Ken Cuccinelli instructed him “to modify intelligence assessments to ensure they matched up with the public comments by President Trump on the subject of ANTIFA and 'anarchist' groups” and to downplay the threat posed by white supremacists.

He had also filed two Office of the Inspector General reports about “attempted censorship of intelligence analysis.”[15] Days before his September 2020 complaint, ABC News reported that DHS under Trump 2020 had withheld the July release of an intelligence bulletin to law enforcement that warned of Russian efforts to promote “allegations about the poor mental health” of Joe Biden.

[20][21] On Juneteenth 2020, the "BlueLeaks" hack revealed a lack of information about right wing groups and Russian interference in the United States.

The report states Murphy was cleared in January 2021 of any wrong doing by the rank and file IG staff, however, the Inspector General blocked the release of the conclusions.

Both articles state if Murphy had not been wrongfully removed in September 2020 there is evidence DHS would have been in a position to detect the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The reports suggest this led to the intelligence failures at DHS to identify violent online rhetoric in the lead up to the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.