The CIA rarely rebukes a media report, but the agency made an exception for CNN this week. The network recently claimed that two years ago the U.S. pulled an American spy out of Russia. The sources they chose to rely on were "multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN" and "a person."
"A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy," CNN claimed.
The CIA called BS. Officials called the report "misguided" and "simply false." Furthermore, the New York Times, which had its own sources, wrote a contradictory piece claiming that the U.S. had extracted the spy back in 2016, before Trump had even taken office.
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said the shoddy CNN report could have serious consequences.
"CNN's reporting is not only incorrect, it has the potential to put lives in danger,” she said in a statement.
The unprecedented public rebuke from the CIA is a good start, but Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) wants CNN to pay even more for its error. He's calling for a congressional investigation into their suspicious spy report.
"I think that it needs to be investigated, but with the CIA coming out like it has, then that’s something we need to look at," Collins said on Fox News on Tuesday.
He didn't make his request without questioning CNN's patriotism.
"I really question whose side CNN is on," Collins added. “To put this out at this time and to put it in such a way that the CIA had to come out and respond to this is, really, a disturbing part.”
A former CIA analyst, Buck Sexton, predicted that the CNN story was "meant to be a weapon against Donald Trump."
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