One unnamed CIA official told the Post that there is a “real concern for interference and politicization” with Pompeo and that some staff at the CIA worry “that if you were passing on something too dicey [to Pompeo] he would go to the White House with it.”
Asked about this, CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani told the newspaper that such concerns are “ridiculous.”
Oh really? Then what´s the point in the first place of doing this :
Upon becoming CIA director, Pompeo required that the CIA’s Counterintelligence Mission Center, which has passed on information to the FBI about contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials and continues to aide the FBI in its probe, report directly to him.
I thought that one of the things that came out of 9/11 was the imperative that intelligence agencies share information and not hoard it. What reason would Pompeo have to interfere with or insert himself in that sharing other than to give a head´s up to Trump?
WaPo has some pretty good stuff out today. Glad they’re keeping an eye on this guy. Pretty bad when the CIA Director can’t be trusted.
Pompeo is an idiot to help Trump obstruct the Russia treason investigation. The CIA staff certainly won’t help him evade prosecution. It makes Pompeo another target for Mueller and exposed to his own impeachment. The only upside to this is Pompeo can be flipped by Mueller to rat out Trump.
I think you’re correct. This article might be in the nature of (DC term) shot across the bow.
If four-term-Congressman Pompeo has eyes he knows he can’t really trust Trump!
I think the intent of this leak to WAPO was to freeze Pompeo. Trump is obviously pressuring Pompeo, and with Trump’s standing low, the CIA is pouncing on the opportunity to further isolate him. Good move by USIC. The thing is, at this point, a lot of the evidence is outside the CIA and in the hands of Mueller, FBI and the committees. Foreign intel has probably already provided tons of stuff.
But at least now we all know that this guy is suspect and he knows that we know, even if he doesn’t want to admit it. Any interference will be a warrant on him and it will be obvious very quickly.
@khyber900 - you said it better than I did.
Pompeo has yet to prove himself as anything more than a corrupt political hack.
The other benefit of this leak is that it makes Trump distrustful of Pompeo. When Trump is demanding stuff from Pompeo and he can’t get it because the CIA is taking him to task for violations of protocol, Trump will get angrier. At the end of the day, people know that Trump’s days are numbered as an effective President. Mattis already runs defense and foreign policy now. He can get nothing done on Capitol Hill except more chaos. Even a hack like Pompeo knows that he can probably keep he same job with Pence as President. CIA internal pressure against him will make him stay in his lane.
When flacks in Washington exclaim “ridiculous” in response to a perfectly credible concern, the opposite of the meaning of that word must be inferred.
As we read this stuff, we need always to bear in mind that the mere fact that the story was published is an important part of the story that isn’t covered by the story because of the reportorial convention that journalists must never make themselves part of the story.
The leaks that drove this story were almost certainly the result of agents or administrators reaching out to the WaPo, not the WaPo reaching out to sources. They drove this story into the WaPo to send a message to Pompeo and build a fence around him and warn him that trotting off to the White House with what they tell him can get him indicted for obstruction of justice.
That’s the part I’m pretty certain about. The more speculative part is that I suspect this story wouldn’t be appearing unless a) they believed he had already gone to the White House with stuff he shouldn’t have shared and want him to stop and/or b) the “if the CIA uncovered” in “[b]ut several officials said there is concern about what he might do if the CIA uncovered new information potentially damaging to Trump and Pompeo were forced to choose between protecting the agency or the president” should read “now that the CIA has uncovered.”
“Ridiculous” is in the same category as “I won’t dignify that with a response” (a favorite expression of Huckabee Sanders when she can’t really deny something.)
Um, last time I looked, the number associated with Donnie’s days as an “effective President” is zero…
Liked big time.
I wouldn’t be worried about Pompeo going to the White House with important information so much as I would him being able to bury or dispose of it.
Sorry. You lost me when you implied that Pompeo might have eyes. That is incorrect. He is just as untrustworthy and any Republican in Congress. That is why T rump chose him to head the CIA.
For me this guy is among the creepier “soft fascists” in the Regme. His statements and temperament are redolent with low cunning and furtive intentions as “dark as Erebus”.
There is a 100% chance that Pompeo is loyal to Trump above all else. That’s how these wannabe mafioso operate. So yeah, it’s a given that he’s doing everything he can to protect Trump from justice.
A retired CIA operative said they were concerned about pompeo the minute he was appointed…know nothing do nothing drumpf puppet…