Secret CIA source claims Russia rigged 2016 election

Guessing “gave” was autocorrected to “have”.

Ah thanks. And I agree.

According to Washington Post article, they were classified:

Both documents [the Mexico and Australia conversations] obtained by The Post contain notes indicating that they were reviewed and classified by retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg Jr., who serves as chief of staff on the National Security Council.

Interesting. The plot thickens to nearly the density of the administration

I think one interesting question is who released it and why. Someone is risking going to jail, and as far as I can see the only result of releasing the memo is embarrassing the President and the Administration. While I’m certainly happy to see Trump embarrassed, it seems odd that someone within the Administration would release this with no wider objective.

There’s a theory that some of the leaks are attempts to guide policy or because someone in the administration Is trying to get their issue in front of Trump’s eyes (and since he refuses to actually read documents, but watches Fox and Friends, if something leaks and shows up in the news he will see it). But that doesn’t match this leak.

It is certainly possible that the leakers were Australia and Mexico, although I’d say that’s unlikely. As has been pointed out in the media. Despite their classification, these transcripts are fairly widely distributed. For instance, I’d guess that everybody involved in the Aussie refugee program would get a copy.

The Washington Post specifically mentions that the documents which they have copies of indicate they were reviewed and classified by the US National Security Council Chief of Staff. That wouldn’t be the case if Mexico and Australia had leaked them.

Maybe somebody in Pence’s office?

Perhaps the leaker thought “holy crap! This will blow the lid off his presidency! Trump is a giant petulant man baby! The wall is just a big political lie and he admits it!”

And then it gets released and everyone shugs. It’s nothing more or less than we would have expected.

I think the most likely explanation is that TS/S/C classification means nothing to a lot of younger people. They just don’t care about that stuff and scoring points on the internet is way more important to them.

More likely Preibus or someone allied with him. A farewell gift.

The real point of the leak is that it showed that Trump is weak and not dominant when dealing with foreigners, which is toxic to his brand. It was aimed at his base, and not at the already converted like us.

Eh… I doubt that’s true. If they are handling classified material correctly, everybody with access to that document should have had the importance of protecting those documents hammered into their brain and they should have signed lots of documents that point out the ramifications of violating the classification protocols.

I think people leak stuff when they determine that there’s something suitably bad going on that the public needs to be aware of. Until Trump gets his shit together and starts acting like a responsible statesman, the leaks will continue, as they should.

I’m not doubting what you say, but I lined to believe anyone that thought that’s what would happen doesn’t actually understand his base, who are far more liable to scream about leaks or say the whole thing is a lie, imo.

Yeah, I think in general it’s less younger people and more complete political/bureaucrtic idiots in Trump’s entourage trying to manoeuvre against others in the entourage. Though this latest one seems more likely to be anti-Trump career bureaucrats.

I can also see, though, the scenario that Telefrog mentions, if only because two of the most prominent leakers who’ve been caught in recent memory – Snowden and Reality Winner – both fit (to some degree) that notion of being young and not having much (seeming) regard for levels of classified info.

Still…yeah, it probably fits better with the continuing inner staff knife fight going on at the WH, at least while Reince was “running things.”

I prefer to think it is lifelong government employees acting as whistleblowers. But… that’s largely because I prefer to think that :) Who the heck knows.

Problem with that is they increasingly have the most to lose if caught (years toward retirement).

True!

But they’re probably smarter than, say… Reality “I’ll just commit felonies right here on my work computer” Winner. At least, the ones in my imagination are!

Keep in mind, one big factor in all of the difficulty Trump is having with the professional administration in Washington: he has no concept of the “sense of mission” that motivates many people in the intelligence or diplomatic communities. It’s a consistent theme with the intelligence leaks that the veteran pros are both outraged and astonished by Trump’s idiocy and his routine violation of the established norms of intelligence: he brags about intel; he’s not “info-safe” with sources, etc.

In terms of the diplomatic community I could see some veteran professional diplomats just being astounded and horrified by Trump’s conversations to the extent they felt the world needed to see the Emperor without his clothes. Also, as pro diplomats they may have overrated the impact of this violation of diplomatic norms and may have expected a greater sense of outrage by the public.

In the big picture, Trump did not spend his life being “assisted by competent professionals”; he spent his life being serviced by lackeys and yes-people. In private business, there’s always a tension between the pros and the sycophants in any organization. In government you have to expect an even higher level of professional expectation b/c most of the vets in areas like diplomacy and intelligence are doing that b/c they feel it’s their mission and many of them honestly feel they are making the world better. For Trump to come in and crap all over their professional norms is beyond offensive.

So in contrast to Snowden / Reality Winner, I think there’s a good chance the transcripts leakers are old pros.

It’s worth repeating that Trump wasn’t just in the private sector - he was specifically in a family business. Corporate officials are used to being under constant scrutiny, because they’re accountable to shareholders and someone is always gunning for their jobs.

For most of his adult life, Trump has been accountable to no one but himself. That’s very rare.