Are our nation's spies really conducting an operation on Trump? The theory that our spy agencies are out to get Trump is really disconcerting. To believe it means believing that the agencies hate Trump more than they love the country they are sworn to serve. Very troubling.
The Wall Street Journal has an article titled "Spies Keep Intelligence From Donald Trump on Leak Concerns" (behind paywall) which is addressed by Ed Morrissey with a somewhat different take: Top intel chief: We’re not withholding intel from POTUS.
Apparently, it's standard operating procedure to withhold the really, really secret stuff, like the sources and methods of spying on other governments. That's understandable, especially when there are people looking for any way to make the administration look bad even if it could hurt someone, e.g., Diane Feinstein's outing of the CIA contractor who oversaw enhanced interrogation of terrorists.
But Morissey makes a pertinent observation:
So they’re doing the same thing as in the past, but … they just don’t like this president? Bottom line question: this any different than past presidencies, or is this the same policy being followed for different motives? It looks a lot more like the latter than the former:
The officials emphasized that they know of no instance in which crucial information about security threats or potential plotting has been omitted. Still, the misgivings that have emerged among intelligence officials point to the fissures spreading between the White House and the U.S. spy agencies.
So federal bureaucrats don't like Donald Trump. That's not exactly earth shattering news, but let's all hope they can put that aside and do their jobs without sabotaging Trump and especially without hurting the United States or its friends. If they can't then hopefully the bad apples will get discovered and drained with the swamp.
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