But one U.S. official familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast Friday that the CIA only audited the database used by the staffers after Senators asked the agency to hand over an “internal review” conducted by Obama’s first CIA director, Leon Panetta. That first request was made in 2013, but it continues to be of particular interest to Udall; he’s put a hold on Obama’s nomination of Caroline Krass to be the agency’s general counsel until he gets access to the documents.

In a March 4 letter, Udall wrote to President Obama: “I would like to know more about the origins of the review, its authorship, the context of its creation, and why its findings were ignored in the development of the CIA’s June 2013 response” to his queries on this review.

The U.S. official, however, disputed that there was any such formal review at all. Instead, the documents Udall and others requested were summaries of what the agency had already provided to the committee with some additional comments by the low-level staff members who wrote the summaries. They did not reflect the views of the agency or even of senior analysts who have examined the efficacy of the black site program, the official added.