In an anonymously sourced article published Monday afternoon, The Washington Post claimed that Donald Trump leaked classified information during a meeting with Russian officials earlier this month.
Top intelligence officials have since debunked the story. Just after the story was published, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said it was “false.” Dina Powell, a deputy national security advisor for strategy who attended the meeting in question, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have both confirmed that Trump did not share anything with Russian officials that would threaten national security.
Yet that hasn’t stopped news outlets from doubling down on WaPo’s claims. They seem to have all forgotten about all the times the Obama administration shared classified information and national security secrets throughout his tenure in the White House.
In 2011, former CIA Director Leon Panetta revealed top secret information about the Osama Bin Laden raid. Panetta reportedly revealed the name of the Navy SEAL unit that carried out the raid and named their ground commander at a ceremony where “Zero Dark Thirty” writer Mark Boal was in attendance, according to a report by the inspector general at the Department of Defense.
Panetta reportedly assumed all 1,300 people in attendance at the event had adequate security clearances to hear the top-secret information about the Seal Team Six raid, according to Politico. The report detailing Panetta’s oversharing flies in the face of the Obama White House’s claims they had never shared any classified information with anyone they shouldn’t have.
In 2010, Gen. James Cartwright, then vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, allegedly leaked to reporters classified information about cyber attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He reportedly shared documents about a highly sophisticated virus used to foil Iran’s nuclear program to members of the media, but there was no outrage from the press about these disclosures.
Cartwright pled guilty last October to giving false testimony to FBI agents about his involvement in the leaks, only to be pardoned by President Obama days before he left the White House. Yet this got very little air time on cable news channels.
So for two days, members of the media are insisting that Trump shared national security secrets with Russian officials despite top intelligence officials’ insistence that these anonymously sourced reports are false. Yet when the Obama administration actually shared classified information about military actions and secret cyber attacks, it received very little attention. No wonder a vast majority of Americans dislike the media and think they are carrying out a partisan agenda.
