Much Is Intercepted. Little Is Made Public.
One of the frustrations in any investigation of the scale of the current one involving Trump and his cohort and their ties to the Russians is how little information becomes public. That's a frustration for us, as interested observers, and also for investigators and journalists.
It's difficult to avoid having communications intercepted by national intelligence agencies, regardless of how important those communications are to the individuals or groups involved. All over the world, intelligence services compete to listen in on those communications. They're very good at it, too.
The problem is that such intercepted information is closely held by the agencies that collect it. Not only is the information classified, the very fact that such information has been intercepted has even a higher classification. Intelligence agencies work very hard to conceal their capabilities and successful intercepts.
So, much is known with regard to Trump, Russia and their ultra-secret shenanigans. More is known that most people can imagine. But, the people who know this information are sworn not to say anything about it. Just releasing an intercepted communication lets everyone know that it actually was intercepted, and that's the biggest secret of all.
That's why stuff gets leaked, very carefully, and in small parts. It's the only way to get that information out without revealing the capabilities that allowed it to be collected. Much more is known. Much more is transcribed. Much more is available to those who acquire and analyze such information. But we're not allowed to know that or see it.
Little by little, though, it gets revealed, or at least some of it does. Eventually, in many cases, enough information leaks out to accomplish something important. We can hope that will be the case with Trump, Russia and their ugly little relationship.
