The Intercept reports -- and additional media outlets confirm -- that CIA Director Mike Pompeo met with William Binney, a former U.S. intelligence official who believes Russia did not hack the DNC, on October 24, 2017 at President Trump's request:
Binney said that Pompeo asked whether he would be willing to meet with NSA and FBI officials to further discuss his analysis of the DNC data theft. Binney agreed and said Pompeo said he would contact him when he had arranged the meetings.
It is highly unorthodox for the CIA director to reach out to someone like Binney, a 74-year-old ex-government employee who rose to prominence as an NSA whistleblower wrongfully persecuted by the government, for help with fact-finding related to the theft of the DNC emails. It is particularly stunning that Pompeo would meet with Binney at Trump’s apparent urging, in what could be seen as an effort to discredit the U.S. intelligence community’s own assessment that an alleged Russian hack of the DNC servers was part of an effort to help Trump win the presidency.
Binney has appeared on Fox News at least 10 times since September 2016 which is where President Trump may have seen him promote his theory:
Binney and the other former [intelligence] officials argue that the DNC data was “leaked,” not hacked, “by a person with physical access” to the DNC’s computer system.
Former CIA intelligence analyst, National Security Council spokesman, and senior advisor to President Obama put the Pompeo-Binney meeting into context with the following tweet:
The equivalent of George Tenet meeting w a "9/11 truther" at Pres Bush's urging. Pompeo doesn't deserve to lead CIA. https://t.co/Jpu1aYys2Q
— Ned Price (@nedprice) November 7, 2017
The Intercept expands on why the encounter is problematic:
The meeting raises questions about Pompeo’s willingness to act as an honest broker between the intelligence community and the White House, and his apparent refusal to push back against efforts by the president to bend the intelligence process to suit his political purposes. Instead of acting as a filter between Trump and the intelligence community, Pompeo’s decision to meet with Binney raises the possibility that right-wing theories aired on Fox News and in other conservative media can now move not just from conservative pundits to Trump, but also from Trump to Pompeo and into the bloodstream of the intelligence community.
CIA DIRECTOR MET ADVOCATE OF DISPUTED DNC HACK THEORY — AT TRUMP’S REQUEST (The Intercept)
Trump reportedly told the director of the CIA to meet with a former intelligence official who claims Russia never hacked the DNC (Business Insider)