(President Donald Trump.Ron Sachs/CNP/MediaPunch/IPX)
US intelligence agencies are said to be keeping some sensitive information away from President Donald Trump over concerns about potential leaks, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night.
Specifically, officials cited by The Journal said they were hesitant to reveal to Trump the "sources and methods" that intelligence agencies use to collect sensitive information.
That is not an unusual departure from protocol, Journal writers Shane Harris and Carol Lee reported. Intelligence officials sometimes withhold details from the president and other high-level government leaders to protect a source, the officials said.
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But the newspaper cited unnamed current and former US officials who told The Journal their hesitations were due in part to lingering questions over possible links between Trump associates and Russia, which they said could compromise the security of such classified information.
A representative for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence denied The Journal's report in a statement on Wednesday night, saying "any suggestion that the US intelligence community is withholding information and not providing the best possible intelligence to the president and his national security team is not true."
(Trump leaving the CIA headquarters with Michael Flynn after delivering remarks during a visit in Langley, Virginia, on January 21.REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
Trump has had a tenuous relationship with the intelligence community since his election. The people interviewed by The Journal said that was one of the reasons for their reluctance to share their methods of collecting sensitive data.
Trump has frequently alternated between railing against US spy agencies and then praising them, as he did in January during an appearance at the CIA headquarters shortly after his inauguration. He has accused the same agencies of pursuing "politically motivated" investigations, on the other hand, as they concluded that Russia tried to interfere in the US election.
(Rep. Adam Schiff.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview with The Journal that the intelligence community considered protecting its sources and the people cultivating them to be "their most sacred obligation."
Schiff added, referring to Trump: "I'm sure there are people in the community who feel they don't know where he's coming from on Russia."