Report: Intelligence agencies are keeping sensitive info from Trump

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 16 February 2017

Worried that the information might be compromised or leaked, U.S. intelligence officials have been keeping some sensitive items from President Trump, current and former officials told The Wall Street Journal Wednesday.

In some of the cases, the withholding of intelligence was because officials did not want Trump to know about sources and methods used to collect the information. Previous presidents and members of Congress have not always been told every last detail of a case, the officials told WSJ, but it was always to protect a source and not because intelligence agencies were concerned about the person's trustworthiness or discretion. The officials also said they did not know of any instances where the intelligence agencies withheld from Trump major information on terrorist plots or security threats. It isn't clear if Trump, who already gets significantly shorter daily intelligence briefings by request, has asked for any information on intelligence sources or methodology.

Trump on Wednesday accused the intelligence agencies of leaking information in order to undermine his presidency, and even blamed them and the media for the downfall of Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser who resigned Monday after not giving factual accounts of his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States. A White House official told WSJ there is "nothing that leads us to believe that this is an accurate account of what is actually happening."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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