Newly minted Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe is slamming recent leaks out of the intelligence community about unverified allegations the Russian government paid Taliban terrorists to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
"U.S. and coalition force protection is a critical priority for both the President and the Intelligence Community. The selective leaking of any classified information disrupts the vital interagency work to collect, assess, and mitigate threats and places our forces at risk. It is also, simply put, a crime," Ratcliffe released in a statement. "We are still investigating the alleged intelligence referenced in recent media reporting and we will brief the President and Congressional leaders at the appropriate time. This is the analytic process working the way it should. Unfortunately, unauthorized disclosures now jeopardize our ability to ever find out the full story with respect to these allegations."
Yesterday, the White House slammed The New York Times for publishing the story, which Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany argues is full of errors.
"The president is briefed on verified intelligence and again I would just point you back to the absolutely irresponsible decision of The New York Times to falsely report that he was briefed on something that he in fact was not briefed on and I really think it's time for The New York Times to step back and ask themselves why they've been wrong, so wrong, so often," she said. "It is inexcusable the failed Russia reporting of The New York Times and I think it's time that The New York Times and also the Washington Post, hand back their Pulitzers."