Two of the Obama administration’s top intelligence officials have criticized President Trump’s CIA director for reportedly meeting with a retired National Security Agency analyst convinced Russia didn’t hack the Democratic National Committee.
Retired Generals James Clapper and Michael Hayden spoke out to CNN on Wednesday over reports that Mr. Trump urged CIA Director Mike Pompeo to meet with William Binney, a former NSA official who co-wrote a disputed report that alleges a Democratic Party insider and not Russian hackers leaked internal data published online during the 2016 presidential race.
The CIA director spoke with Mr. Binney for about an hour last month at agency headquarters.
Mr. Binney retired from the NSA in 2001, but recently co-authored a report released by a group of mostly former intelligence officials implying the DNC breach blamed on Russia was an inside job, contrary to the conclusion reached by several U.S. intelligence agencies and published in a report released in January prior to Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
“This episode, I think, adds to the image – perhaps unjustifiably – that Pompeo is a political activist, as a ’go-to’ guy for Trump,” said Mr. Clapper, the former director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, calling it “not a good place for a director of the CIA to be.”
“Why did the president turn to the CIA director rather than the DNI?” asked Mr. Hayden, the head of the NSA from 1999 through 2005 and the director of the CIA under George W. Bush administration and briefly former President Barack Obama’s tenure. “Structurally, this should have been a DNI question since the Binney article challenged an overall community assessment.”
Speaking with Mr. Binney, Mr. Hayden speculated, was likely “something that Director Pompeo never wanted to do,” he told CNN. “He had to have been pushed” by a president “grasping at straws,” he added.
Mr. Trump disputed Russia’s involvement in his election prior to taking office and has publicly disputed the findings of his own intelligence agencies with respect to Moscow’s role in the 2016 race. Mr. Pompeo claimed last month that Russia’s efforts “did not affect the outcome of the election,” but the CIA issued a statement afterwards clarifying that intelligence officials never ruled as much.
The CIA has declined to comment on the meeting between its director and Mr. Binney, but told CNN that Mr. Pompeo “stands by and has always stood by the January 2017 intelligence community assessment.”
That assessment found that Russian hackers breached the DNC and other targets during the 2016 race and then released stolen data through outlets including WikiLeaks.
Russia has denied interfering in the election. Allegations about its involvement are currently being investigated in the House, Senate and Department of Justice.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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