How many bounties were paid, how much did people get? Were any bounties actually ever paid? We don't know. I've read up on U.S. intelligence activities this past year, mostly historical stuff but I think it's pertinent. Who ever leaked this had a motive. It could be someone who wants to see a stronger position against Russia, it could be someone who wants Trump to lose. The one thing I don't think it was? A CIA officer who thought the American public needed to be more informed. There are just an ungodly shit ton of things the American people could know about the conduct of the Afghan war or Russian hijinx that would spin our heads are illuminate our understanding of government incompetence. This was targeted with particular goals in mind by people who use information to try and effect political change for a living. It might be gospel truth, it might be an intercept of a casual conversation that never amounted to anything. I don't trust "sources" with motives like I do evidence. Everyone is too ready to believe anything negative about Trump. Being an overly credulous isn't a virtue, but you wouldn't know it by the way most people think about politics. The only group less trustworthy than intelligence agencies is elected officials. If more evidence is needed to impeach him than he is effectively unimpeachable. The one thing I think we can all agree on is that Joe Biden is probably the most exciting presidential candidate of the last hundred years!
If I'm in Afghanistan and I have reason to believe the GRU has a bounty on my head? I run that up the chain. If it comes back down the chain that nothing will be done? I run that to the Washington Post. If I'm in the Washington Post and I get this tip? I follow up. And that's all the motive we need.Who ever leaked this had a motive.
I just read a longish profile of Fiona Hill in the new Yorker. In it, she describes is decent detail how individuals inside the administration leak things to the press for the sole purpose of making other individuals look bad to the president, not to the public. They use the press to backstab each other without any regard to the public responsibility of either the government or the media. I'm sure this has been done in the past, but I'm also sure it's never been weaponized this way.
Looking bad to the public has been no impediment to anyone in this administration, other than getting heckled at restaurants. Everyone there is a brazen opportunist and curtailing the opportunity of your opponent is just checkers. The basic problem is that integrity is a handicap in this administration, so this is what we get.
It's quite the war of "who knew what, when" right now. The waters have been muddied. We need documentation. It exists, but Trump may have eaten it all by 8 AM tomorrow morning. Prediction: Trump was indeed alerted to this intel, called up Vlad, and took his word against our own intelligence community, just like in Helsinki. edit: for Trump, every event is an opportunity, right? This will be a convenient loyalty test for his IC top brass.