WSJ: INTEL COMMUNITY KEEPING INFO FROM TRUMP
Greg Richter
Members of the intelligence community are holding back some information from President Donald Trump over fears they cannot trust him with it, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The White House disputed the report, telling the Journal, "There is nothing that leads us to believe that this is an accurate account of what is actually happening."
The newspaper cites current and former intelligence officials as saying the information kept from Trump includes the sources and methods used to spy on foreign governments.
While it is not uncommon for the intel community to keep back information on their methods from presidents or Congress when they have needed to do so for the safety of their sources or agents, they still have given both the information they needed to know, the Journal points out.
And the motivation in such cases has not been concern about whether the president could be trusted to keep the information secret.
The Journal said it was not clear how many times such information has been kept back from Trump, who has been in office just under four weeks, but it said their sources said they did not know of any time information about security threats or plotting had been kept back.
Trump himself has asked for less information in his daily intelligence briefings than his predecessors.
The officials who spoke to the Journal cited Trump's multiple statements of admiration of Russian President Vladimir Putin as motivation for withholding information.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned Monday over reports he had mislead Vice President Mike Pence over his December conversations with Russian officials concerning U.S. sanctions. While no illegal activity by Flynn has been found, Democrats have alleged he violated the Logan Act, which forbids private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments on behalf of the United States.
Trump has had a rocky relationship with the intelligence community since the campaign, and he renewed the feud this week over Flynn's resignation, which he blamed on them and the media for illegal leaks.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/intelligence-community-withholding-information/2017/02/15/id/773897/