Washington Post:
President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.That last part is the true controversy in this story, because:
The information the president relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.
The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency.
“This is code-word information,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”
For almost anyone in government, discussing such matters with an adversary would be illegal. As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law.By the way, allegedly, no sources were endangered:
White House officials involved in the meeting said Trump discussed only shared concerns about terrorism.In summary, Trump revealed a terrorist threat to the Russians. By revealing it, this could save lives. But because this story involves Trump and the Russians, the media considers it to be proof of something nefarious.
“The president and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation,” said H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser, who participated in the meeting. “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly.”
Needless to say, the Left is all over this story, and it was the lede on CNN too. Regardless of the framing of this story, it is a story, and should be a lede. Anytime a president reveals classified information, right or wrong, it should be reported.
Unfortunately, the Right seems to be missing this story. Don't look for it on Fox News. However, there is an equally intriguing story which the Left seems to be ignoring today:
Fox 5 DC:
It has been almost a year since Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was murdered in the nation's capital. There have been no solid answers about why he was killed until now.
Rich was shot and killed last July in Northwest D.C and police have suggested the killing in the District's Bloomingdale neighborhood was a botched robbery. However, online conspiracy theories have tied the murder to Rich's work at the DNC.
Just two months shy of the one-year anniversary of Rich's death, FOX 5 has learned there is new information that could prove these theorists right.
Rod Wheeler, a private investigator hired by the Rich family, suggests there is tangible evidence on Rich's laptop that confirms he was communicating with WikiLeaks prior to his death.The mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, is a Democrat. So the conspiracy theory is possible.
Now, questions have been raised on why D.C. police, the lead agency on this murder investigation for the past ten months, have insisted this was a robbery gone bad when there appears to be no evidence to suggest that.
Wheeler, a former D.C. police homicide detective, is running a parallel investigation into Rich’s murder. He said he believes there is a cover-up and the police department has been told to back down from the investigation.
"The police department nor the FBI have been forthcoming,” said Wheeler. “They haven't been cooperating at all. I believe that the answer to solving his death lies on that computer, which I believe is either at the police department or either at the FBI. I have been told both.”
When we asked Wheeler if his sources have told him there is information that links Rich to Wikileaks, he said, “Absolutely. Yeah. That's confirmed."
Wheeler also told us, "I have a source inside the police department that has looked at me straight in the eye and said, ‘Rod, we were told to stand down on this case and I can’t share any information with you.’ Now, that is highly unusual for a murder investigation, especially from a police department. Again, I don’t think it comes from the chief’s office, but I do believe there is a correlation between the mayor's office and the DNC and that is the information that will come out [Tuesday].
However, let's assume for a moment that Seth Rich was in contact with Wikileaks, and he released the DNC emails to Wikileaks and was later killed by the Democrats who discovered it. Even in those circumstances, it is hard to believe there was a wide-ranging conspiracy by the Democrats, known all the way from the DNC to the mayor of Washington, and not a single person talked? A more likely story is the officer in charge of the investigation decided a robbery gone bad was the best explanation, and ordered his homicide investigators to concentrate on other unsolved murders. Bureaucracy is a more likely explanation than conspiracy.
If Rich were killed by the Democrats, it would have been a small operation. However, even that is doubtful. Politicians are generally far too gutless to arrange a murder. These are people who cannot even balance a budget.
But at the end of the day, even without the conspiracy theory, it is entirely possible that Rich could have been the mole who leaked the emails to Wikileaks.
There is your full news today from both sides of the media's political divide.
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