Is Trump A Victim Of The Deep State
by Tyler Durden
Is President Trump being undermined by a �Deep State� eager to leak damaging information
about him?
The president�s allies, both within the White House and in friendly media outlets,
say the answer is yes. Trump himself has complained repeatedly that he is being victimized by
underhanded leaks.
To Trump�s critics, the talk of a deep state amounts to a conspiracy theory that has been
pushed toward the mainstream from the wildest corners of right-wing media.
In their telling, the leakers have done the nation a vital service, shining a light onto
previously secret communications between Russia and close Trump associates such as Michael
Flynn and Jared Kushner.
The nexus of Russia, leaks, the intelligence services and the deep state will come to the
fore again this week, with fired FBI director James Comey scheduled to testify before Congress
� unless he is blocked at the last minute by the White House invoking executive privilege.
Beyond the partisan arguments, the question of whether a deep state exists � and whether
the leaks about Trump are justified � divides intelligence experts, including those who
have served in leading agencies.
Gene Coyle, who worked for the CIA for 30 years before becoming a lecturer at Indiana
University Bloomington, was skeptical of the concept of a deep state, in the sense of hordes
of government officials working in concert in the shadows.
But he said that the Trump administration has legitimate grounds for complaint about
the number of leaks.
�If you are that appalled at the actions of an administration, you should quit, hold
a press conference and publicly state your objections,� said Coyle, a former field
operations officer. �You can�t run an executive branch if more and more people think,
�I don�t like the policies of this president, therefore I will leak information to make
him look bad.� �
Coyle also suggested that leakers were working hand-in-hand with news organizations that
are too credulous about any kind of anti-Trump information.
That idea finds wide currency in the president�s orbit.
David Bossie, who served as deputy campaign manager for Trump last year, told The Hill
via email: "Call it what you want � leaks, deep state, or the permanent bureaucracy � it
is dangerous for government employees to engage in activities that undermine a sitting president.
This issue must be addressed immediately and in a bipartisan manner."?
Trump�s chief strategist Steve Bannon has reportedly propounded on the existence of
a deep state working to delegitimize the president. Breitbart News, where Bannon served as executive
chairman before going to work full-time for Trump, has invoked the idea repeatedly.
One result has been an increased public familiarity with this terminology. Referring to phrase
"the deep state" itself, focus group expert Frank Luntz told The Hill: "Yes, Trump voters
do mention it. And that tells me that they are watching cable news and conservative talk
radio. That phrase was not part of our lexicon until the election, but it's been repeated
often since then."
At times the idea of an intelligence community striking back against the president has even
reached across party lines.
In January, before Trump had even been inaugurated, Sen Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), now the Senate
minority leader, said the president-elect was �being really dumb� to criticize the
intelligence community.
�Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday
at getting back at you,� Schumer told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
Schumer�s argument that the intelligence community would work to take vengeance on
an elected president � and the lack of disquiet he or other Democrats expressed at such a
prospect � was a sign of the times.
Skepticism of the intelligence community has historically been more prevalent on the left
than on the right. But that dynamic has reversed as classified information damaging to Trump
has come to light.
�Everything is viewed through partisan lenses � it is ironic but it doesn't surprise me,�
said Ronald Kessler, a journalist and author who has written extensively about the intelligence
services. �The Republicans do the same thing: When they liked what Comey was doing, they
thought he was great. When they didn�t like what he was doing, they thought he was bad.�
Kessler was also among those who argue the terminology of the deep state is excessively
conspiratorial � even if he takes a dim view of the leaks themselves.
�I don�t seen any point in calling it the deep state,� he said. �Obviously there
are a lot of people in the government who hate Trump. � I don�t think it�s very
mysterious.� Others see not nefarious leakers working against
an elected president, but people doing their patriotic duty to get information to the public.
�Leaks happen because the machinery of government is broken, and they come from people who � if
I�m talking about the CIA or FBI or other members of the intelligence community � know
of what they speak, and are outraged by the conduct of a president,� said Tim Weiner,
the author of an award-winning history of the CIA, Legacy of Ashes.
Perhaps the most dramatic example of a leak came when The Washington Post learned that
Michael Flynn had discussed sanctions with Russia�s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey
Kisylak, during the transition period. The information led to Flynn�s firing after
the shortest-ever tenure as national security advisor.
Defenders of leaks point to other examples too, such as the revelation that Trump disclosed
classified information during an Oval Office meeting last month with Kislyak and Russian
foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
�Team Trump keeps shooting itself every day,� Weiner said. �Trump himself disclosed
classified information to the Russians, unilaterally! He burned one of our oldest intelligence partners
since the Cold War, which is the State of Israel and its intelligence services. Now,
that�s a leak. You are giving a strategic enemy the most highly classified information
from a strategic ally? That�s extraordinary!�
Malcolm Nance, a retired naval intelligence officer and the author of The Plot to Hack
America, a book about Russian meddling in last year�s election, contended that talk
of the deep state is absurd.
�What people want to do is take this crazy conspiracy theory� and use it as a bludgeon
against the people,� Nance, who is also an MSNBC contributor, said.
Nance also argued that the leaks themselves were much more likely to be coming from Capitol
Hill � in particular congressional staffers who received classified briefings � rather
than the intelligence agencies.
�The probability that it is leaking from the CIA is approximately zero,� he said.
�The probability that it is leaking from a staffer who has clearance is much higher.�
Others are not so sure. But where they stand on the merits of the leaks seems to largely
rest on what they think of Trump�s conduct.
Coyle, the former CIA officer, said he was �appalled� at the number of leaks.
�Sadly, the point we have reached now is that people simply don�t agree with the
policy of the White House, and therefore they think that entitles them to try to change
it by leaking information,� he added.
Bossie, the former Trump deputy campaign manager, cast the leakers' efforts as a backlash against
Trump's election as an agent of change.
"President Trump is an outsider trying to drain the swamp," he said. "?He is taking
on the permanent class entrenched in our government in Washington � now they are fighting back
and harming America in the process. They need to be held to account. Leakers of national
security information must be prosecuted."
But Weiner asserted that some of Trump�s behavior, including his firing of Comey, amounted
to obstruction of justice. He said he saw �stark and clear� parallels between Trump�s
current troubles and Watergate � the latter example being one where he viewed the intelligence
community as acting properly to preserve the rule of law.
�With all due respect to Woodward and Bernstein,� he said, �it was the FBI that brought Nixon
down.�
For more infomation >> Sen Warner Gets Angry – Says No One is Laying to Rest Reports That Trump Obstructed Justice - Duration: 1:51. 
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