President Trump confirmed Sunday he did not notify particular congressional committees ahead of the U.S. raid that led to the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The House Intelligence Committee, currently spearheading impeachment inquiry proceedings against the president, was not notified about the raid in advance, one aide told CBS News.
Trump’s inner circle for decisions pertaining to such matters appears to have become smaller since leaks within his administration threaten his presidency. According to another report from ABC News, Trump told Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr about the raid after it happened, as well as Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, members of the “Gang of 8” a group of Congressional leaders who receive classified intelligence briefings on a routine basis, were not notified, aides said. Graham is not part of the Gang of 8.
A reporter asked Trump after his announcement if certain congressional committees and leadership were told of the raid before it happened. “We notified some,” Trump replied. “Others are being notified now as I speak. We were going to notify them last night, but we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I’ve never seen before. There’s nothing — there’s no country in the world that leaks like we do, and Washington is a leaking machine.”
“And I told my people we will not notify them until our great people are out — not just in, but out,” he continued. “I don’t want to have them greeted with firepower like you wouldn’t believe. So, we were able to get in. It was top secret. It was kept. There were no leaks, no nothing. The only people that knew were the few people that I dealt with.”
Trump added, “There’s a very small group of people that knew about this. We had very, very few people. A leak could have caused the deaths of all of them.”
Texas Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News Channel’s Maria Bartiromo Sunday morning that Democrats on the committee have been too distracted by the impeachment inquiry to hold any intelligence briefings in over a month.
“It’s been well over well over a month. I don’t know the exact time. All I can remember is one ambassador after another that I’ve never heard of before. That’s where we’ve been spending our time, unfortunately. And, hopefully, we can get past that and get on to, you know, obviously things like this,” Ratcliffe said.
