Report: Intelligence officials withhold information from Trump

U.S. intelligence officials have not been sharing some sensitive information with President Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Current and former officials told the news source that some information was withheld from Trump in fear that that it would be compromised or leaked.

{mosads}According to the report, some information presented to the president omitted sources and methods used by intelligence agencies during their operations.

The officials said they were not aware of any instance in which crucial national security threats were omitted from intelligence briefings.

A White House official told the publication that “there is nothing that leads us to believe that this is an accurate account of what is actually happening.”

Officials told the Journal that intelligence agencies have withheld details from past presidents, but never before out of fear over trustworthiness or leaks. The sources said that concerns stem largely from Trump’s friendliness toward Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, and his encouragement of Russian operatives to hack 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails.

It is not clear how frequently officials have withheld details from Trump. 

Trump reignited his feud with the intelligence community on Wednesday after the president accused officials of “criminal” leaks.

“From intelligence, papers are being leaked, things are being leaked; it’s criminal action. It’s a criminal act, and it’s been going on for a long time before me, but now it’s really going on,” Trump said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by ‘intelligence’ like candy. Very un-American!” Trump also tweeted the same day.

Tags Hillary Clinton

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