As American officials began to realize that Russia was trying to sabotage the 2016 presidential election, the informant became one of the C.I.A.’s most important — and highly protected — assets. But when intelligence officials revealed the severity of Russia’s election interference with unusual detail later that year, the news media picked up on details about the C.I.A.’s Kremlin sources.
C.I.A. officials worried about safety made the arduous decision in late 2016 to offer to extract the source from Russia.
Sure, CNN wants to blame Trump. But no:
The decision to extract the informant was driven “in part” because of concerns that Mr. Trump and his administration had mishandled delicate intelligence, CNN reported. But former intelligence officials said there was no public evidence that Mr. Trump directly endangered the source, and other current American officials insisted that media scrutiny of the agency’s sources alone was the impetus for the extraction.
Thanks Obama and The Resistance! Putin couldn't have divided America without you.
UPDATE: Remember, The Washington Post and the New York Times refute CNN's take:
The New York Times and Washington Post flatly contradicted CNN's story. Both newspapers reported that media revelations were the sole reason for the extraction.
Everyone gets stuff wrong sometimes. So that's not the issue. The issue is that whenever they are wrong it always seems to be wrong in a manner to harm Republicans. And they wonder why so many Americans don't trust them.
