David Ignatius@WaPo.. 'A [tug of war] to counter Trump’s threat to national security' (Page 1/1)
rinselberg
NOV 11, 02:31 PM
"A furious behind-the-scenes battle to counter Trump’s threat to national security"
quote
President Trump’s senior military and intelligence officials have been warning him strongly against declassifying information about Russia that his advisers say would compromise sensitive collection methods and anger key allies.
An intense battle over this issue has raged within the administration in the days before and after the Nov. 3 presidential election. Trump and his allies want the information public because they believe it would rebut claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin supported Trump in 2016. That may sound like ancient history, but for Trump it remains ground zero — the moment when his political problems began.
CIA Director Gina Haspel last month argued strongly at a White House meeting against disclosing the information, because she believed that doing so would violate her pledge to protect sources and methods, a senior congressional source said. This official said a bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic senators has been trying to protect Haspel, though some fear that Trump may yet oust her. . . .
The first three paragraphs of a brief-to-middling length OpEd column.
