National Intelligence Office Denies Report Claiming Deep State Hiding Info from Trump

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement on Wednesday night disputing a report that career intelligence officials have been withholding information from President Trump and his national security team.

The original report surfaced in the Wall Street Journal, which claimed that “current and former officials familiar with the matter” said sensitive intelligence was held back from the president because they were afraid he would compromise it.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, appeared to endorse this account, stating he had spoken with “people in the intelligence community that do have concerns about the White House, about the president.”

“I think those concerns take a number of forms,” Schiff added. “What the intelligence community considers their most sacred obligation is to protect the very best intelligence and to protect the people that are producing it.”

However, shortly after the Wall Street Journal published its account of Deep State insubordination, Fox News cast doubt on the narrative, citing a government official who said Trump “has in fact been receiving what’s known as the President’s Daily Brief, noting that it does not routinely include raw data or discussion of sources and methods.”

Fox News suggested former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn’s plan to personally assemble briefings for the president might have slowed down the flow of intelligence information to Trump’s desk. Fox News also noted that even the Wall Street Journal’s report acknowledged that intelligence officials have always held some information back from White House briefings to protect their assets.

The ODNI’s statement on Wednesday night declared, “Any suggestion that the U.S. Intelligence Community is withholding information and not providing the best possible intelligence to the President and his national security team is not true.”

Either the ODNI statement is false or the sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal were making claims of insubordination they didn’t actually commit, to slander the White House and posture as members of the anti-Trump resistance.