WASHINGTON — The White House’s handling of intelligence reports on the Russia investigation has been labeled unorthodox and, to the Democrats, suspicious. But when it comes to Donald Trump’s relationship with his spy agencies, that’s par for the course.
Since taking office, Trump has challenged the integrity of intelligence officials, moved to exert more control over spying agencies and accused his predecessor of using government spycraft to monitor his presidential campaign.
This week, the White House is facing allegations it funneled secret intelligence reports to a top Republican investigating his campaign’s possible ties to Russian officials as well as Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.
The approach appears to be based, at least in part, on the White House’s anxiety over the Russia investigations, which threaten to seriously weaken his presidency. It also reflects a deep distrust of the intelligence community among his political advisers, including government newcomers who have never dealt with classified information or covert programs.
“It reveals a chasm of ignorance about how stuff is done,” said Michael Hayden, the former head of the CIA and National Security Agency.
Officials have expressed an interest in having more raw intelligence sent to the president for his daily briefings instead of an analysis of information compiled by the agencies, according to current and former U.S. officials. The change would have given his White House advisers more control about the assessments given to him and sidelined some of the conclusions made by intelligence professionals.
One official said the focus on accessing more raw intelligence appeared to be more of a priority under the short tenure of Michael Flynn, who was ousted as national security adviser after less than one month on the job. He was replaced by H.R. McMaster, an Army lieutenant general who was expected to exert more control over the NSC but has found himself struggling to overcome skepticism among Flynn holdovers who have the ear of Bannon.
Earlier this month, CIA leaders raised concerns with McMaster about an intelligence director on his staff. McMaster moved to replace him, but the staffer, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, appealed to Bannon and Kushner, who got Trump to intervene to save his job.
On Thursday, The New York Times identified Cohen-Watnick as one of two White House staffers who helped House intelligence chairman Devin Nunes view secret reports.
Nunes said the materials he saw showed the “troubling” extent to which information about Trump and his associates’ communications was spread around the government in the waning days of the Obama administration. His public declarations came days after Trump officials privately suggested to reporters that they focus on that same topic, a signal that the California congressman and the White House may have been working in tandem.
The White House also said the information validated Trump’s remarkable and unproven claim that President Barack Obama wiretapped his New York skyscraper, though Nunes disputed that conclusion.