Morell found “no fault with the performance of Ms. Haspel,” he wrote in the memo, which the CIA stated came at the request of Senate Intelligence Committee members.

“She drafted the cable on the direct orders of Mr. Rodriguez; she did not release that cable. It was not her decision to destroy the tapes; it was Mr. Rodriguez’s.”

Morell found that Haspel “acted appropriately in her role” as Rodriguez’s chief of staff regarding the tapes, “including in her efforts to press for and facilitate a resolution of the matter.” Haspel also “claims that she believed — incorrectly, as it turned out — that Mr. Rodriguez was going to obtain approval from” Porter Goss, then CIA director, in advance of the tapes’ destruction in 2005.