{"slug":"trump-intelligence-community-attacks-cia-briefings","title":"Intelligence Community Attacks: CIA Briefings Undermined, Officials Publicly Attacked","date":"2017-01-21","lastUpdated":"2021-01-17","description":"Throughout his presidency, Trump engaged in an unprecedented pattern of public attacks on the U.S. intelligence community, disputed intelligence assessments that contradicted his preferred narratives, publicly sided with foreign leaders over his own intelligence agencies (most notably Vladimir Putin over CIA assessments of Russian election interference), removed officials who provided unwelcome assessments, and installed political loyalists in leadership positions. Former CIA Director John Brennan had his security clearance revoked after criticizing Trump. The acting DNI Richard Grenell was installed to oversee the classification and release of documents related to the Russia investigation.","summary":"Trump's attacks on the intelligence community followed a pattern: dispute assessments that reflected poorly on him or contradicted foreign governments he was cultivating, attack the officials who provided them, reward officials who shaped assessments to his preferences, and revoke credentials of critics. He disputed the CIA's assessments of Saudi Crown Prince MBS's role in the Khashoggi murder, Russian interference in the 2016 election, North Korean nuclear progress, and Iranian nuclear program compliance. He revoked the security clearances of six former senior officials — all critics — and installed loyalists in acting DNI and other positions.","category":"rule-of-law","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/us/politics/trump-brennan-security-clearance.html","title":"Trump Revokes Ex-CIA Director John Brennan's Security Clearance","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-intelligence-community-attacks/2020/01/01/story.html","title":"Trump's systematic attacks on the intelligence community","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/trump-intelligence-community-cia-attacks","title":"A timeline of Trump's conflicts with the intelligence community","publisher":"The Associated Press"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["intelligence","CIA","rule-of-law","first-term","Brennan","security-clearance","Russia"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2017-01-21","title":"Trump CIA speech in front of Memorial Wall — crowd sizes","summary":"On his first full day in office, Trump visits CIA headquarters and delivers a speech in front of the Memorial Wall primarily about his crowd sizes and media coverage. CIA veterans describe it as deeply inappropriate."},{"date":"2017-07-05","title":"Trump disputes intelligence community Russia finding","summary":"At G20 summit, Trump publicly questions whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election, despite the intelligence community's unanimous 'high confidence' assessment."},{"date":"2018-07-16","title":"Trump sides with Putin over CIA at Helsinki","summary":"At the Helsinki summit, Trump publicly states he has no reason to believe Russia interfered in the election, siding with Putin over his own intelligence agencies' unanimous assessment."},{"date":"2018-08-15","title":"Trump revokes Brennan's security clearance","summary":"Trump revokes former CIA Director Brennan's security clearance, citing 'erratic behavior.' Brennan had been a vocal critic. Eight other former officials are threatened with similar revocations."},{"date":"2020-02-20","title":"Grenell installed as acting DNI — no intelligence background","summary":"Richard Grenell, a political operative with no intelligence background, is installed as acting Director of National Intelligence, becoming the first person without intelligence experience to hold the position."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, D.C.","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"U.S. national security interests through degradation of independent intelligence assessment; senior officials whose security clearances were revoked as retaliation for criticism; intelligence community morale and willingness to provide accurate analysis","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President; systematically disputed intelligence assessments; revoked security clearances of critics; publicly sided with foreign leaders over U.S. intelligence agencies","institution":"White House"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2021-01-17","summary":"Documented from reporting on four-year pattern."}]}}