We have reached a dangerous moment in American democracy when senior Trump administration officials are politicizing and selectively declassifying intelligence to help Trump win reelection. That's wrong. It needs to stop now. THREAD /1
In the @SangerNYT @nytimes article today, one of our top national security officials, NSA O'Brien, said "What I’ve heard from the F.B.I.... is that Russia would like Bernie Sanders to win the Democrat nomination." nyti.ms/3c0eVo4 2/
Note first that he is declassifying this intelligence in this sentence. Did Trump give him permission to do so? Note also the release of this intelligence is clearly designed to hurt a Democratic presidential candidate. That is wrong. 3/
And of all Administration officials, NSA O'Brien is the last person who should have anything to do with politics. His job is to defend the American people -- all of us, Democrats and Republicans alike. 4/
2nd, what evidence supports his claim? Give us the data to support this contention. Who is "Russia" in his sentence? Did Putin say this? & why is the FBI -- not the CIA or the NSA -- his source? The FBI typically doesn't take the lead on assessing foreign govt intentions. 5/
3rd, this next O'Brien statement is even more outrageously politicized: "They’d probably like him to be president, understandably, because he wants to spend money on social programs and probably would have to take it out of the military.” Just shocking coming from our NSA. 6/
On what factual basis does O'Brien make this claim? I read closely the Russian press. I've never seen such a claim made. Did the FBI hear Putin or someone close to him provide this explanation? I doubt it. O'Brien more likely is speculating for a partisan objective. 7/
After all, he uses the word "probably" twice in this sentence. That word connotes speculation, not facts. And he is speculating in a way very clearly designed to hurt Sanders. 8/
By the way, based on my reading of non-classified sources, I personally don't believe that Putin wants Sanders to be elected president. Putin prefers Trump. But that's just the assessment of a private citizen. I'm not the National Security Advisor. 9/
Why didn't O'Brien say, "they would probably like to see Sanders as the nominee because that will make it easier for my boss to win.' Many non-USG folks have speculated as much, with the same amount of data: 0. But a USG official can't participate in these guessing games. 10/
The Trump administration must stop using their access to classified intelligence to help their president win. If they cant keep this intel secret, then ODNI should provide briefings directly to the American voters. Let the voters then decide what is fact & what is speculation.11/
BTW, NSA O'Brien, we must spend more money on education, R&D, and healthcare to prevail over China and Russia in the 21st century. But that policy debate is for another day. END THREAD. 12/
