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Lauren Toms

lmeier@washingtontimes.com

Lauren Toms is a national security reporter for The Washington Times, covering national security committees on Capitol Hill, foreign affairs, defense, and diplomacy. She began covering politics at CNN during the 2016 presidential election, working closely with the national security and justice teams, and later joined Axios as an editor specializing in international and military coverage.
Lauren holds a master's degree in U.S. law from Washington University in St. Louis school of law, and a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communications from the George Washington University school of media and public affairs. She can be reached at ltoms@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Lauren Toms

From left: FBI Director James B. Comey, CIA Director John O. Brennan, and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper sit together in the front row before President Barack Obama spoke about National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance in this Friday, Jan. 17, 2014, file photo at the Justice Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) ** FILE **

John Brennan and James Comey, Obama intelligence chiefs, under fire after Mueller report

Special counsel Robert Mueller's finding that there was no Trump campaign conspiracy with Russia to steal the 2016 election has unleashed a tsunami of outrage toward Obama-era intelligence chiefs, particularly former CIA Director John O. Brennan and former FBI Director James B. Comey, who are accused of pushing the allegation during congressional hearings, in social media posts and in highly charged interviews on television over the past two years.

March 28, 2019
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is shown here in a March 26, 2019 news conference. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Pompeo, Democrats tangle over State Department, aid spending

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a long day on Capitol Hill, defending his department's reduced budget request before two Hill panels and clashing repeatedly with both Democrats and Republicans over President Trump's recommended 23 percent cut in diplomatic and foreign aid programs.

March 27, 2019
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and David Norquist, far right, the Defense Department's budget chief, arrive to testify at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the fiscal year 2020 Pentagon budget, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 26, 2019. Lawmakers are concerned about military construction projects that could lose funding this year to pay for President Donald Trump's border wall. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Patrick Shanahan pushes for Space Force amid lawmaker doubts

Just one day after the House Armed Services Committee's Democratic chairman rejected the Trump administration's Space Force proposal and said he would instead look for "other options," acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and the Pentagon's general and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said they strongly support it.

March 26, 2019
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan listens during a proclamation signing with President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House in Washington, Monday, March 25, 2019. Top defense leaders will face worried lawmakers on Capitol Hill for the first time since the Pentagon listed military construction projects that could lose funding this year to pay for President Donald Trump’s border wall. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Shanahan defends wall funding in face of Democratic complaints

Appearing on Capitol Hill in his second attempt to defend the $718 billion defense budget, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan stood by the proposed use of devote Pentagon funds to help build President Trump's border wall in the face of strong criticism from House Democrats.

March 26, 2019
Venezuela’s self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guiado greets the crowd during an event to swear in nurses, doctors, professionals and others, as the group that will help with the arrival and distribution of humanitarian aid in Venezuela, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) **FILE**

Guaido: Venezuelan intelligence officers kidnapped chief of staff

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said Thursday that government agents who work as intelligence officers for President Nicolas Maduro arrested his chief of staff, Robert Marrero, from his home in Caracas in the middle of the night early Thursday morning.

March 21, 2019
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, centers, speaks to the media on his plane after departing Kansas City, Missouri, Monday, March 18, 2019. (Jim Young/Pool Image via AP)

Lawmakers press Pompeo over briefing that excluded press corps

Lawmkers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee are calling on the State Department to release details from a Monday night press briefing by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that excluded the department's press corps and only allowed "faith-based media" to participate.

March 19, 2019