Intel officials defend briefing Trump on allegations
WASHINGTON — Targets of foreign intelligence, including presidents, need to know the unsubstantiated and potentially compromising personal information that could be used against them, intelligence and law enforcement experts say.
While the public disclosure of the document summarized in the briefing materials has widened a troubling rift between President-elect Donald Trump and the U.S. intelligence community, the former officials said top spy agency directors were likely acting responsibly, even if their only aim was to warn Trump of the information’s existence and the imminent risk that it would be made public.
Trump was told about the information during a meeting with top intelligence officials last Friday. “It's all fake news. It’s phony stuff. It didn’t happen,” he said at his press conference Tuesday. “I read what was released, and I think it’s a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace."
A U.S. official familiar with the matter has said that the information, the product of a political opposition research report compiled by a former British intelligence officer, was included in the briefing materials, at least in part, because it had been widely circulated among U.S. lawmakers, journalists and others.The identity of the former British intelligence officer, Chris Steele, was first disclosed Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal. Steele is now a director of London-based Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd.
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