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Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan has apologized to Senate Intelligence Committee leaders after an internal CIA probe found that agency officials improperly snooped into computers being used by Senate staffers.

In a statement Thursday, CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said an Office of Inspector General report concluded that "some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between" the Senate and the CIA about computer systems used to produce documents in connection with a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into CIA detention and interrogation practices.

"Director Brennan was briefed on the CIA OIG’s findings," Boyd said. "The director subsequently informed the SSCI chairman and vice chairman of the findings and apologized to them for such actions by CIA officers as described in the OIG report."

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the findings vindicated her assertions earlier this year that the actions constituted an improper intrusion by the executive branch into congressional oversight.

“The investigation confirmed what I said on the Senate floor in March — CIA personnel inappropriately searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers in violation of an agreement we had reached, and I believe in violation of the constitutional separation of powers," Feinstein said in a statement. "Director Brennan apologized for these actions and submitted the IG report to an accountability board. These are positive first steps. This IG report corrects the record and it is my understanding that a declassified report will be made available to the public shortly.”

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama remains confident in Brennan's leadership, despite the findings of the inspector general report. Asked whether the episode had undercut Brennan's credibility, Earnest said: "Absolutely not."

Brennan "has taken all the responsible steps to address this situation," the White House spokesman said. "That's the kind of proactive leadership the president would expect.

Boyd said in his statement that the CIA is setting up a panel to consider possible disciplinary action in connection with the actions the agency watchdog found to be improper.

"The director is committed to correcting any shortcomings related to this matter and, to that end, he is commissioning an Accountability Board at CIA, which will be chaired by former Senator and [intelligence committee] member Evan Bayh. This board will review the OIG report, conduct interviews as needed, and provide the director with recommendations that, depending on its findings, could include potential disciplinary measures and/or steps to address systemic issues," the CIA spokesman said.

The expression of contrition from the CIA is a far cry from the defant tone Brennan struck earlier this year after Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) lit into the agency during a speech on the Senate floor.

"As far as the allegation of CIA hacking into Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth,” Brennan said in a March speech. “That’s just beyond the scope of reason.”

Technically, the CIA director's denial may have been true since the computers at issue were set up by the CIA to handle the Senate's requests for highly classified documents. But the OIG probe found the agency's actions were nevertheless improper, since the CIA had agreed to respect the confidentiality of the work done by Senate investigators.

The blow-up followed a discovery by the CIA that Senate staffers had obtained copies of internal CIA analyses not intended to be shared with the committee. That led to fears of a security breach. Ultimately, both sides complained to the Justice Department that the other may have violated the law. The CIA-Senate fight became so heated that several members of the intelligence commitee said they'd lost confidence in Brennan. White House officials also stepped in to try to mediate the dispute.

Justice Department officials decided earlier this month to close their inquiries into the CIA-Senate flap without launching a formal investigation. However, the CIA statement notes that a Senate sergeant-at-arms investigation into Senate staffers' decision to take copies of some documents from a CIA facility to secure Senate offices on Captiol Hill remains ongoing.

Senate Intelligence Committee member Mark Udall (D-Colo.), who announced he'd lost confidence in Brennan back in March, said Thursday that word of the CIA watchdog's findings had underscored that sentiment. Udall also suggested that the criminal investigation be reopened by a special counsel.

"I will be briefed on the inspector general report soon, but assuming the findings confirm what John Brennan himself admitted to the committee — that the CIA conducted this unauthorized search - I am concerned about the director's apparent inability to find any flaws in the agency he leads," Udall said in a statement. "Earlier this year [Brennan] referred to the chairman's and my publicly stated concerns about the CIA search as 'spurious allegations that are wholly unsupported by facts' and urged us to 'refrain from outbursts.' Brennan needs to account for these statements. I also believe the administration should appoint an independent counsel to look into what I believe could be the violation of multiple provisions of the Constitution as well as federal criminal statutes and Executive Order 12333."

Another panel member, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), also called for more action by the CIA director.

"The CIA Inspector General has confirmed what Senators have been saying all along: The CIA conducted an unauthorized search of Senate files, and attempted to have Senate staff prosecuted for doing their jobs,” Wyden said. “Director Brennan’s claims to the contrary were simply not true. What’s needed now is a public apology from Director Brennan to staff and the committee, a full accounting of how this occ...