Following President Trump's exclamations today with regard "un-American" leaks of classified intel, it appears he has a bigger, much more serious problem on his hands. WSJ reports that US intel officials have withheld information from President Trump due to concerns it could be leaked or compromised.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified current and former officials familiar with the matter, reports that officials’ decision to keep information from Mr. Trump underscores the deep mistrust that has developed between the intelligence community and the president over his team’s contacts with the Russian government, as well as the enmity he has shown toward U.S. spy agencies. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump accused the agencies of leaking information to undermine him.
In some of these cases of withheld information, officials have decided not to show Mr. Trump the sources and methods that the intelligence agencies use to collect information, the current and former officials said. Those sources and methods could include, for instance, the means that an agency uses to spy on a foreign government.
The officials emphasized they know of no instance in which crucial information about security threats or potential plotting has been omitted.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he has heard concerns from officials about sharing especially sensitive information with Mr. Trump.
“I’ve talked with people in the intelligence community that do have concerns about the White House, about the president, and I think those concerns take a number of forms,” Mr. Schiff said, without confirming any specific incidents.
“What the intelligence community considers their most sacred obligation is to protect the very best intelligence and to protect the people that are producing it.”
So, why are they worried?
The current and former officials said the decision to avoid revealing sources and methods with Mr. Trump stems in large part from the president’s repeated expressions of admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his call, during the presidential campaign for Russia to continue hacking the emails of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Making it very clear that the escalating distrust between the intelligence community and The White House will lead to a vicious circle of less information-sharing and implicitly more distrust until President Trump moves from tweet-castigation to treason charges… or the intelligence community breaks into full mutiny (and John Schindler's narrative).
A White House official said: “There is nothing that leads us to believe that this is an accurate account of what is actually happening.”
via http://ift.tt/2llA300 Tyler Durden