Barack Obama’s CIA head found common ground with the Trump administration, decrying media reports of the President sharing state secrets with the Russian government.
Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, John Brennan told lawmakers that American officials have shared classified information with the Russian government, and that Trump probably violated protocols for information-sharing, if press reports about the May 12 meeting are true.
“What I was very concerned about, though, is the subsequent releases of what appears to be classified information purporting to point to the originator of the information,” Brennan said.
“These continue to be very, very damaging leaks. I find them appalling and they need to be tracked down,” he added. “That is where the damage came from.”
The Washington Post, which broke the story, said that Trump revealed to Russian officials secrets about Islamic State capabilities. The paper reported that the information was provided from an inside source cultivated by a US ally.
The New York Times subsequently reported that the Israeli government provided the information to the Trump administration.
Democratic lawmakers hammered Trump for the disclosure, which was later confirmed by the White House.
“If the reporting is accurate, in one fell swoop, the President could have unsettled our allies, emboldened our adversaries, endangered our military and intelligence officers the world over, and exposed our nation to greater risk,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Trump himself reacted to the story—not unlike Brennan—by calling for a crackdown on the source.
“I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community,” Trump tweeted. He was referring to former FBI Director James Comey, who the President had fired days earlier.
The substance of the Twitter outburst by Trump did not deviate much from Obama administration policy. The last administration used the World War I-era Espionage Act to prosecute more leakers and whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined.
