U.S. Reportedly Extracted High-Level Spy From Russia Amid Fears Trump Would Out Him
A new report says the U.S. has extracted a high-level spy out of Russia amid fears that President Donald Trump might’ve blown their cover.
CNN reports that the asset, deeply embedded in the Russian government, was designated for extraction back in 2017 due to concerns about their risk of exposure. Sources who worked with the White House, the intelligence community, and Congress told CNN that there was a particular worry that the Trump administration would mishandle classified information pertaining to the source.
The decision to extract came after Trump held an Oval Office meeting years ago with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and former Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. Trump shared “highly classified” information with the Russians during this meeting, and he defended himself afterward by saying he had the “absolute right” to do that.
As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
Trump’s sharing of information sparked outrage at the time, with Israeli intelligence officials reportedly furious that the president’s actions exposed a source they had on Iran and ISIS. Trump defended himself on this count by claiming he never mentioned Israel during a photo-op with prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham responded to the story by saying “CNN’s reporting is not only incorrect, it has the potential to put lives in danger.” A spokesperson for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to offer comment, but CIA director of public affairs Brittany Bramell offered this pushback:
“CNN’s narrative that the Central Intelligence Agency makes life-or-death decisions based on anything other than objective analysis and sound collection is simply false. Misguided speculation that the President’s handling of our nation’s most sensitive intelligence—which he has access to each and every day—drove an alleged exfiltration operation is inaccurate.”
Interestingly, New York Times’ Maggie Haberman noted that when Trump attacked CNN today, his tweets came just as the network was airing their report on television.
This tweet came as CNN was reporting on extraction of a spy partly because of concerns about how the president and his administration handled classified Intel https://t.co/LcfVYXTISS
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 9, 2019
Watch above, via CNN.
UPDATE — 9:10 pm ET: The New York Times has a report out on this story, but there’s a portion that directly takes issue with a significant part of CNN’s reporting:
The decision to extract the informant was driven “in part” because of concerns that Mr. Trump and his administration had mishandled delicate intelligence, CNN reported. But former intelligence officials said there was no public evidence that Mr. Trump directly endangered the source, and other current American officials insisted that media scrutiny of the agency’s sources alone was the impetus for the extraction…
A C.I.A. spokeswoman responding to the CNN report called the assertion that Mr. Trump’s handling of intelligence drove the reported extraction “misguided speculation.”
