CIA Director Muddles Agency’s Efforts To Relay Russia-Related Intel To White House

on May 21, 2018 in Langley, Virginia.
Gina Haspel prepares to speak while flanked by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence after she was sworn in as CIA director on May 21, 2018 in Langley, Virginia. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
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CIA Director Gina Haspel has reportedly been complicating efforts to deliver the intel her agency has gathered on Russia to the White House.

Politico reported on Wednesday that last year, Haspel ordered Courtney Elwood, CIA’s general counsel, to vet intel coming from analysts who track Russian activity before it can be forwarded to Trump and the White House. The move has reportedly led to a reduction in the amount of intel that ends up in front of President Donald Trump, who is infuriated by reports of the Kremlin’s election interference.

Current and former officials told Politico they were unsure whether the decline was because Elwood was deliberately holding up the intel or if the analysts have been holding back on their report submissions, fearing that they might get in trouble. Haspel “calls analysts liars all the time,” a former CIA official reportedly said.

However, whether or not the CIA director’s adverse response to her agency’s Russia work is rooted in a desire to please Trump is unclear. An official floated to Politico the possibility that she working to protect the CIA’s credibility because “she knows that they’re under a microscope.”

CIA press secretary Timothy Barrett defended Haspel’s actions in a statement to Politico.

“She rightfully asks difficult questions and ensures intelligence is corroborated, double-checked, and then run through the wringer once more,” Barrett said. “Any suggestion of a political motive for how she leads this agency is misguided.”

The CIA’s scaling back of Russia intel to the White House comes amid Trump’s anger over the intelligence community’s findings that Russia boosted his 2016 campaign and is actively working to assist his 2020 reelection bid as well.

On Thursday, the President put FBI Director Chris Wray on blast for testifying to Congress that Russia was working to “denigrate” Democratic presidential candidate on Trump’s behalf.

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Notable Replies

  1. CIA Director Muddles Agency’s Efforts To Relay Russia-Related Intel To White House

    But yeah, she oversaw the torture of all those people out of patriotisms. The same reason that she is blocking info about foreign meddling.

    But yeah those people were going to get tortured anyway and the 2020 election is going to be stolen no matter what, there is no point for her to lose her job and pension.

  2. We need no further proof that trumper is in fact an arm of and for Russia.
    After President Rayguns said famously “tear down that wall”, trumper wants to be joined at the hip with Putin.
    All this so he can build a tower in Moscow.
    We have been truly sold out for a sack of shit.
    I still have a problem believing trumper could be so degrading to the office of the President, now we have even more proof!
    Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed such a thing was possible.
    I must face the fact our President is a subversive towards america, it is irrefutable !

  3. The move has reportedly led to a reduction in the amount of intel that ends up in front of President Donald Trump, who is infuriated that anyone is reporting on the Kremlin’s election interference.

    FIFY.

  4. Avatar for docd docd says:

    What would the WH do with that info other than inform Putin that the CIA was aware of the activity? It’s not as if they would order that something be done.
    I’m not trying to defend anything she does; I’m just pointing out that sending intel to the WH is a straight shot to calling Putin and saying “be a little more discreet, here.”

  5. Avatar for quin quin says:

    Either way the sad truth is that when you jump into the swamp you’ll be covered in the filth that is already there and in the case of the Rumpian swamp, that’s a whole lot of bull…No matter how hard you try to clean your hands, you are still dirty.

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