Former intelligence officials condemn Trump administration's selective releases about Russia investi

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as a risk to sensitive sources

WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration continues to declassify selective CIA documents regarding the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, former intelligence officials are expressing concern that the releases are politically motivated and potentially damaging for national security.

Over recent days, President Trump’s director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, has declassified bits and pieces of highly redacted CIA notes and memos related to Russian officials’ internal discussions of the 2016 U.S. election, including a Russian allegation that then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was planning to tie Trump to Russia to distract from the ongoing controversy over her use of a private email server.

The highly selective disclosures, which tread dangerously close to the CIA’s sources and methods, and which Ratcliffe notes the intelligence community is not sure are accurate, reveal little additional substance about the investigation into Russian meddling or the Trump campaign, say former intelligence officers. Instead, they say, the release serves as a dangerous example of Ratcliffe politicizing intelligence and putting the CIA’s sources at risk without reason, as well as distracting the American public from other issues just weeks before the election.

“It runs the risk of being politically motivated,” explained Dan Hoffman, a retired CIA officer and a Fox News contributor. “In intelligence, you collect human intelligence from sources, and then you marry that with signals intelligence, overhead reconnaissance, everything you’ve got.” That is followed by a rigorous analytic assessment.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-intelligence-officials-condemn-trump-administrations-selective-releases-about-russia-investigation-201347388.html