WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee says the CIA improperly searched a stand-alone computer network established for Congress as part of its investigation into allegations of CIA abuse in a Bush-era detention and interrogation program. 
 
 Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California defended her committee's work and challenged the CIA on Tuesday as she sought to set the record straight amid various reports of disputes between Congress and the agency. 
 
 The California Democrat said the CIA searched the network this past January. 
 
 At issue is whether the CIA violated an agreement made with the committee about monitoring the panel's use of CIA computers. The CIA provided the computers to congressional staffers in a secure room at its headquarters so that the committee could review millions of pages of top secret documents. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 CIA Director John Brennan told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell that the agency did not snoop on Senate Intelligence Committee computers to thwart an investigation into illegal detention and interrogations under President George W. Bush. 
 
 "We weren't trying to block anything," Brennan said. "The matter is being dealt with in an appropriate way, being looked at by the right authorities, and the facts will come out," he added. 
 
 "But let me assure you the CIA was in no way spying on [the committee] or the Senate." 
 
 The exclusive Tuesday interview was Brennan's first since the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee charged that the CIA had searched the panel's computers, possibly violating the law. 
 
 "The CIA just went and searched the committee's computers," California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a lengthy speech on the Senate floor, calling the the matter a "defining moment" for the oversight of the Intelligence Committee. 
 
 "I have grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied by the United States Constitution, including the speech and debate clause," she said. 
 
 "It may have undermined the Constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activity or any other government function." 
 
 Feinstein added that the search may also have violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and an executive order that prohibits the CIA from conducting domestic searches or surveillance. 
 
 She said she has asked for an apology and an acknowledgment that the CIA's actions were wrong but that "I have received neither." 
 
 The Intelligence Committee is investigating CIA detention and interrogation practices that date back to when Brennan was directing that program. 
 
 WATCH: Sen. Dianne Feinstein accuses CIA of spying on Intelligence Commitee 
 
 Asked about Feinstein's allegations, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney would not comment on whether the CIA broke any laws but said that "the president has great confidence in John Brennan, and confidence in our inteligence community and in our professionals at the CIA." 
 
 Brennan said that he had not seen Feinstein's speech but was aware of "all sorts of claims out there" that the CIA was meddling in the Senate investigation. 
 
 "That is not the case at all," he said. 
 
 "We greatly respect the separation of powers between the executive branch and the legislative branch," he added. 
 
 Feinstein said the CIA's inspector general turned the matter over to the Justice Department, but Sen. John McCain said an independent probe may be necessary. 
 
 After the interview, in a discussion with the Council on Foreign Relations, Brennan said that he supported any effort to ferret out wrongdoing with respect to commitee computers. 
 
 "I will be the first one to say we need to get to the bottom of it," he said. "And if I did something wrong, I will go to the president and I will explain to him exactly what I did and what the findings were. And he is the one who can ask me to stay or to go." ||||| The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday sharply accused the CIA of violating federal law and undermining the constitutional principle of congressional oversight as she detailed publicly for the first time how the agency secretly removed documents from computers used by her panel to investigate a controversial interrogation program. 
 
 Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that the situation amounted to an attempted intimidation of congressional investigators, adding: "I am not taking it lightly." 
 
 She confirmed that an internal agency investigation of the action has been referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. And she accused the CIA of violating the Fourth Amendment, various federal laws and a presidential executive order that bars the agency from conducting domestic searches and surveillance. 
 
 She has sought an apology and recognition that the CIA search of the committee's computers was inappropriate, but said: "I have received neither." 
 
 Her comments blow wide open a dispute that has simmered behind the scenes in recent weeks after press reports said that the CIA had searched computers intended to be used solely by the panel to in an effort to determine how committee staff members gained access to a draft version of an internal agency review of its controversial interrogation program. The computers were provided by the CIA and housed at a separate facility in Virginia operated by an agency contractors. 
 
 Feinstein confirmed that committee investigators had obtained documents detailing the interrogation policy, but said she didn't know whether they were provided intentionally, unintentionally or by agency whistleblowers. 
 
 "The staff had asked the CIA about documents made available for our investigation. At times, the CIA has simply been unaware that these specific documents were provided to the committee," she said. "And while this is alarming, it is important to know that more than 6.2 million pages of documents have been provided. This is simply a massive amount of records." 
 
 Reading from a prepared text throughout her remarks, Feinstein said she was speaking out "reluctantly" but that she wanted to speak in order to clarify the situation. "The increasing amount of inaccurate information circulating now cannot be allowed to stand unanswered," she said. 
 
 After she spoke, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said, "In 40 years here, it was one of the best speeches I'd ever heard and one of the most important." 
 
 And Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) credited Feinstein for speaking out and defending the separation of powers. "There is no one who has more courage and conviction than Dianne Feinstein," he said.
– CIA Director John Brennan is hitting back after Sen. Dianne Feinstein confirmed reports that the CIA illegally searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers. "We weren't trying to block anything," Brennan tells NBC. "The CIA was in no way spying on [the committee] or the Senate." Feinstein had earlier equated the surveillance with intimidation, notes the Washington Post, saying, "I am not taking it lightly." The CIA has broken federal laws, an executive order against domestic spying, and the Fourth Amendment, she says. The agency's own probe of the claims has been referred to the Justice Department, and criminal prosecution could be on the table, Feinstein notes. The searching occurred in January, the senator says, per the AP. Her claims come after reports that the CIA spied on computers it had provided to the committee for use in reviewing a trove of millions of top secret documents. The committee was looking into information on interrogation techniques. Further reports suggested that Senate staffers took classified documents from the computers. Feinstein, for her part, says she doesn't know how certain interrogation documents ended up in committee hands—whether they were offered by the CIA, mistakenly provided, or handed over by whistleblowers. Sen. Patrick Leahy called Feinstein's speech "one of the best" he'd "ever heard" on the Hill, "and one of the most important."