Trump Opposes Use Of Material From Foreign Spies Who 'Sell Out' Their Countries - Reports

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th September, 2019) President Donald Trump mistrusts covert intelligence operatives overseas who feed information to US agencies as damaging to American foreign policy and has repeatedly expressed opposition to using intelligence they provide, media reports said on Tuesday.

"Trump has privately said that foreign spies can damage [US] relations with their host countries and undermine his personal relationships with their leaders," CNN reported, citing unnamed sources.

In addition Trump has expressed doubts about the credibility of the information they provide, with one source telling CNN that the president believes spies are people who are selling out their country.

On Monday, the media outlet reported that the US had exfiltrated a Russian with access to President Vladimir Putin, who had been spying for the United States for many years, in part because of fears that Trump had disclosed US intelligence in a May 2017 meeting with Russian officials.

The story was widely criticized by administration officials as inaccurate, but the New York Times went further in a follow up story.

The Times reported there was no evidence that Trump had endangered the source and that media scrutiny of CIA sources alone was the impetus for the extraction.