Donald Trump knew that the Russians stole emails from the DNC. He was briefed on it regularly by U.S. intelligence during the presidential campaign. He got a lengthy briefing previous to his inauguration in which he finally admitted that Russia was behind the theft. And, as we’ve recently learned, George Papadopoulos informed the Trump campaign that Russia had stolen Democratic emails months before anyone else knew.
All of that certainly makes the actions behind this Intercept story both a staggering waste and an incredible attempt to deceive.
[CIA Director Mike Pompeo] met on October 24 with William Binney, a former National Security Agency official-turned-whistleblower who co-authored an analysis published by a group of former intelligence officials that challenges the U.S. intelligence community’s official assessment that Russian intelligence was behind last year’s theft of data from DNC computers.
Despite how that may sound, this wasn’t some splinter faction of the intelligence community that had a reasoned disagreement with the analysis done by the FBI, CIA, and others. This was an outside group headed by a 74-year-old who retired in 2001, and the sole supporting evidence for this alternate view was a misunderstood pair of time stamps.
Why would Trump direct Pompeo to follow up a theory from someone whose analysis was not even supported by others in his own organization? There was this:
Binney’s claim that the email theft was committed by an insider at the DNC also helps fuel one of the more bizarre conspiracy theories that has gained traction on the right: that the murder of a young DNC staffer last year was somehow connected to the data theft. Binney said he mentioned the case of Seth Rich to Pompeo during their meeting.
And, perhaps more importantly, there was this critical factor:
It is possible Trump learned about Binney and his analysis by watching Fox News, where Binney has been a frequent guest, appearing at least 10 times since September 2016.
Trump told Pompeo to take the sick conspiracy surrounding Seth Rich seriously ... and Pompeo did as told.
It’s not surprising that Fox News would bring on a conspiracy theorist to support Trump’s often-voiced skepticism about Russian involvement in the DNC thefts, or that Fox would do so despite the continuing pain that brings to the family of Seth Rich or the confusion it generates for their viewers.
Fox News’ tacit support of a lie was enough for Donald Trump to create an ouroboros of disinformation by dispatching Pompeo in an attempt to derail the CIA.
However the meeting came about, the fact that Pompeo was apparently willing to follow Trump’s direction and invite Binney to discuss his analysis has alarmed some current and former intelligence officials.
“This is crazy. You’ve got all these intelligence agencies saying the Russians did the hack. To deny that is like coming out with the theory that the Japanese didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor,” said one former CIA officer.
The news that Trump arranged a meeting with Binney has thrilled those on the right who not only deny any relationship between Trump and Russia, but want to absolve Vladimir Putin of any offense. With the actual intelligence agencies fuming and the conspiracy theorists cheering, Trump has accomplished his goal.
It also shows the people doing the actual work at the CIA where they stand with the boss.
The meeting raises questions about Pompeo’s willingness to act as an honest broker between the intelligence community and the White House, and his apparent refusal to push back against efforts by the president to bend the intelligence process to suit his political purposes. Instead of acting as a filter between Trump and the intelligence community, Pompeo’s decision to meet with Binney raises the possibility that right-wing theories aired on Fox News and in other conservative media can now move not just from conservative pundits to Trump, but also from Trump to Pompeo and into the bloodstream of the intelligence community.