The Congress had the same intelligence...

...except when they didn't.

By virtue of his constitutional role as commander-and-in-chief and head of the executive branch, the President has access to all national intelligence collected, analyzed and produced by the Intelligence Community. The President's position also affords him the authority - which, at certain times, has been aggressively asserted - to restrict the flow of intelligence information to Congress and its two intelligence committees, which are charged with providing legislative oversight of the Intelligence Community. As a result, the President, and a small number of presidentially-designated Cabinet-level officials, including the Vice President - in contrast to Members of Congress - have access to a far greater overall volume of intelligence and to more sensitive intelligence information, including information regarding intelligence sources and methods. They, unlike Members of Congress, also have the authority to more extensively task the Intelligence Community, and its extensive cadre of analysts, for follow-up information. As a result, the President and his most senior advisors arguably are better positioned to assess the quality of the Community's intelligence more accurately than is Congress.

Good for Sen. Feinstein (with whom I don't always agree) for simply going to a third party, taking it outside the he said/she said partisan debate, and asking the question.

This won't change a thing, as the truth doesn't often seem to be a barrier to political rhetoric. It's up to the Dems to publicize this and call the President out on his... wait for it... lies. Because that's what this is.