Thread by @AG_Conservative

So let's talk about the latest story about a CIA asset that had to be extracted from Russia in 2017 because of fear for their safety...

The story was first reported by CNN's @jimsciutto. Sciutto framed the story to suggest that the extraction was "driven by" President Trump's mishandling of classified information.

That's a serious accusation.

cnn.com/2019/09/09/pol…

@jimsciutto I will note that I have been very critical of Trump's handling of classified information. He has the right to declassify things as POTUS, but that does not mean it is a wise move in many instances.

It can be very harmful w/o proper process.

@jimsciutto However, while I do agree Trump has exercised poor judgement in revealing classified information in the past, the CNN story just didn't add up. There were a lot of holes.

Those holes were filled by a NYT story that followed:

nytimes.com/2019/09/09/us/…

@jimsciutto A lot of reporters portrayed the nYT story as confirmation of the CNN story, but it actually provides quite a few details the essentially contradict the central thesis in the CNN story.

So much so that the CNN story probably needs to be retracted.

@jimsciutto The NYT story points out that the source in question was actually offered an extraction in 2016 (before Trump was President) because CIA sources had already viewed the source as compromised (they rejected).

That doesn't fit with the theory that Trump's handling was responsible.

@jimsciutto The CIA Spokesman specifically responded to the CNN motive claim, which doesn't make sense with the timeline, by calling it "misguided speculation".

It also isn't clear how the information Trump revealed in the May meeting (which CNN pointed to) would have affected the source.

@jimsciutto Lastly, the NYT specifically points to media reporting about Russian interference in the election as the reason the CIA believe the source was compromised. That is why they offered to extract that source in 2016, and again successfully in 2017.

@jimsciutto This is a serious story. Losing a high-level asset in the Russian government is a big deal and deserves solid reporting (which NYT did in this case). Journalists should not be spinning such stories to score political points.

@jimsciutto Worth noting that outlets such as Vox, The Hill, and The Guardian all picked up CNN's now-discredited version of the story.

@jimsciutto P.s.

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Update: The Washington Post confirms that CNN got the story wrong.

washingtonpost.com/national-secur…