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Newer News: March 2018

February 2018 Intelligence News

• Jared Kushner Has Lost His Top Secret Security Clearance by Jim Dalrymple II and Dan Vergano, Buzzfeed, February 27. "The president's son-in-law and other staffers had their security clearances downgraded from 'top secret' to 'secret'."
• Trump sends Congress record high 'black budget' spy funding request by Steven Nelson, Washington Examiner, February 27. "President Trump sent Congress the largest-ever publicly disclosed request for spy agency funding, the administration revealed Tuesday."
• DNI Releases Budget Figure for FY2019 Appropriations Requested for the National Intelligence Program, ODNI news release, February 27. "The aggregate amount of appropriations requested for the FY 2019 National Intelligence Program is $59.9 billion, which includes funding requested to support Overseas Contingency Operations."
• DoD Releases Military Intelligence Program (MIP) Request for Fiscal Year 2019, DoD news release, February 27. "The total, which includes both the base budget and Overseas Contingency Operations funding, is $21.2 billion."
• Feds' case against alleged NSA hoarder hits turbulence by Josh Gerstein, Politico, February 26. "A little-noticed order from a federal judge earlier this month has the potential to upend the prosecution of Harold Martin, who was arrested in 2016 after an FBI search turned up a massive trove of sensitive data he allegedly removed during two decades of work for several different intelligence agencies."
• Indictment of Internet Research Agency for election tampering, Department of Justice, February 16. "From in or around 2014 to the present, Defendants knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other (and with persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury) to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016."
• Why so many temporary White House clearances? Adam Schiff wants to know by Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor, February 14. "President Trump's White House isn't famous for sweating the small stuff. Maybe that's one reason it is stumbling over something known for exacting detail: the security clearance process."
• How Partisan Has House Intelligence Panel Become? It's Building a Wall by Sharon LaFraniere and Nicholas Fandos, New York Times, February 8. "To committee members of both parties, the planned division of one room into two is emblematic of how far the panel, a longtime oasis of country-first comity in a bitterly divided Congress, has fallen since it began its Russia inquiry last year."
• Releasing the GOP memo may have broken a 'safety valve' on government secrets, experts say by Kevin Breuninger, CNBC, February 6. "House Republicans' mad dash to release a fiercely contested classified memo could erode the relationship between U.S. intelligence agencies and Capitol Hill, experts say."
• 'The Memo,' Selective Disclosure and the Fight for True Transparency, On the Media, February 2. "According to transparency advocate Steven Aftergood, those hailing the memo as a bombshell are acting in bad faith disguised as openness. Aftergood and Bob discuss the implications of the memo and why this week's news might complicate black-and-white frameworks for disclosure and secrecy."
• How did the incendiary GOP memo get to Trump? Through a rule that had never been used before by Kevin Breuninger, CNBC, February 2. "House Intelligence Committee Republicans passed a classified memo to the president without intelligence agencies' input using the so-called Rule X."
• Did Adam Schiff put classified information in press release? by Steven Nelson, Washington Examiner, February 2. "Some experts say the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee may have put classified information in a press release refuting parts of a 'FISA abuse' memo declassified by President Trump and released Friday by committee Republicans."