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WASHINGTON – President Trump's order authorizing Attorney General William P. Barr to downgrade all information leading to the investigation into Russia paves the way for a potential confrontation with the CIA He effectively strips the agency of his most critical power: to choose which secrets he shares and which secrets remain hidden.
Mr Trump said on Friday that he wanted Barr to "get to the bottom" of what intelligence agencies knew about the investigation of his campaign. He promised, "We expose everything."
The president raised questions about CIA's involvement in the origins of the investigation into Russia, and other officials said Barr wanted to know more about sources in Russia, including a key informant who helped the CIA conclude that President Vladimir V. Putin has ordered the trespass of the 2016 election. Mr. Trump also invoked two close allies, Australia and Britain, telling reporters that he wanted the Attorney General to examine their role in sharing intelligence on Russia's interference.
The declassification order served as a response to the special advocate's inquiry. Since the publication of the Mueller report, the president has been trying to draw attention to his accusations that the F.B.I. and the intelligence services spied on his campaign. The new order, said former officials, could be aimed at giving more ammunition to this effort.
Intelligence agencies said Friday that they would not easily divulge their secrets. Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, pledged to cooperate in this review, but also warned that the secrets of the intelligence community, or I.C., should be protected.
"I am confident that the Attorney General will work with the I.C. in accordance with long-established standards for the protection of highly sensitive classified information which, if made public, would endanger our national security, "Coats said in a statement.
Although the ultimate authority to declassify documents rests with the President, Mr. Trump's delegation to Mr. Barr effectively stripped Mr. Coats and the Chief Governor. control of their secrets. This decision could jeopardize agencies 'ability to keep their sources' identities secret, said former intelligence officials.
Mr Coats and Gina Haspel, the director of the ICA, will work to protect their most valuable secrets – the identity of sources – former officials said. Ms. Haspel has been described as a fierce political fighter, but she also made sure to maintain a strong working relationship with Barr, former officials said.
Traditionally, the IAC has been effective in intramural government struggles, largely because its power comes from its well-kept information and secrets. By taking this power from intelligence agencies, MM. Trump and Barr may have weakened the C.I.A.
The intelligence services are already experiencing some discomfort with the Department of Justice's ability to keep the identity of sources secret. The name of F.B.I. the informant involved in the initial investigation into the contacts of the Trump campaign with Russia was inadvertently made public.
"If you compromise agents, lives can be lost. That is why this issue is so delicate, "said in an interview Senator Angus King, independent of Maine and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "It is important to be extremely careful in this area. That's my only concern and I hope Mr. Barr will realize it.
Barr has asked Trump the declassification authority, a Justice Department official said Thursday. He did not detail the information he's looking for, but some officials said he was interested in how the CIA.A. concluded that Mr. Putin had ordered the campaign of interference in 2016.
Among the most important sources of information on Russian interference in the elections, a person close to Putin provided information on his involvement, former officials said. The source revealed evidence of one of the latest major intelligence findings that President Barack Obama made public before leaving office: the fact that Putin was behind the piracy of Russia.
Long fed by the CIA, this source allowed the informant to provide essential information in 2016 on the role played by Russian leaders in the campaign of interference, officials said.
John O. Brennan, the CIA director of Mr. Obama, would bring the reports of the source directly to the White House, thus preventing them from participating in the president's daily briefing on intelligence services, lest the briefing document not is too widely disseminated, according to officials. Instead, he put them in an envelope to read for Mr. Obama and a small circle of collaborators.
But Trump's promise to declassify a wide range of documents suggests that Mr. Barr's mandate is broader than that of investigating a single source. Mr. Trump's comments mentioning Britain and Australia seemed to refer to F.B.I. on George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign assistant.
An Australian diplomat told the F.B.I. In the summer of 2016, Mr Papadopoulos had said that Russia had offered to help the Trump campaign by posting stolen Democratic emails. The F.B.I. Stefan Halper, an informant, spoke with Mr. Papadopoulos, an investigation technique that led Trump to charge the spy bureau with his campaign.
Barr has picked up the term "spying", citing it several times over the last few weeks to describe the stages of the F.B.I. began investigating the Trump campaign, but did not allege that the office acted inappropriately.
It would have been inappropriate for intelligence agencies to sit on Mr. Papadopoulos' information, King said.
"If anyone came and said that to the C.I.A. or F.B.I. and they did not open a counter-intelligence investigation, they would be guilty of professional misconduct, "he said. "If they had ignored that, it would have been an unacceptable law enforcement, especially when we are dealing with an opponent who is trying to undermine our country."
He also said that the intelligence committee had examined both the role played by the FBI and the CID in the origin of the investigation on Russia. He said that the C.I.A. and the National Security Agency played a role in the investigation, but said that it was appropriate.
Some revelations about intelligence operations around the 2016 campaign have angered officials in Britain, Australia and other nearby countries, according to former officials. Giving more information on British or Australian cooperation in the investigation could exacerbate tensions with two of America's closest intelligence partners.
"This is an extra step that will raise questions among our allies and partners about whether or not to share sensitive information," said Michael Morell, former CIA deputy director and host of the "Intelligence Matters" podcast. ".
Mr. Morell stated that Mr. Coats, and not the Attorney General, was in the best position to determine what information would be harmful if declassified.
Intelligence officials previously feared that their findings would be distorted by political agendas – particularly in the pre-war war in Iraq, information on alleged weapons of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein would have been selected to justify 2003 invasion.
But Mr. Trump's order could be extremely detrimental to the CIA and other intelligence agencies, drying up the sources and preventing their ability to gather intelligence, said California Democrat Representative Adam B. Schiff. and Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
"The president now seems determined to downgrade the information to turn it into weapons," Schiff said during an interview.
Mr Trump has long argued that he was a target of "deep state", accusing Obama repeatedly of not touching his phone, the F.B.I. to secretly attempt to undermine his candidacy and former intelligence chiefs, to alter their findings to prove the involvement of Russia in its electoral victory.
He has repeatedly appeared to support Putin's assertion that there is no evidence of a Russian campaign to sabotage the 2016 elections. But the Mueller Report left no doubt that Russian were both behind the theft and publication of e-mails and other data from Democrats, as well as a campaign on social networks aimed at lifting Mr M.'s candidacy. Trump and try to edit the information registered systems.
Mr. Schiff promised that his committee would closely monitor Mr. Barr's actions in the investigation. "We will expose any abuse, any politicization of intelligence," he said.
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