- Three European security officials told Insider that their services feared that President
Donald Trump would rashly declassify intelligence materials in his last few months in office — an act that could reveal sources and methods of collection toRussia and other US adversaries. - The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Trump had been demanding the release of classified intelligence that he believes will prove Russia did not help him in his 2016 campaign.
- Such a release could put the methods and lives of sources working for the US and its allies at risk, the European officials said.
- One counterterrorism official told Insider that "it's clear that the US will continue to be a very distracted and even crippled world power until January," when President-elect
Joe Biden takes over. - The official said "bad actors" like Russia and China could cause trouble during this time.
As President Donald Trump refuses to concede the
The Washington Post's David Ignatius reported on Tuesday that Trump had been demanding that his national-security team declassify various intelligence materials that he believes will prove that Russia did not attempt to help his presidential campaign in 2016.
Three European security officials told Insider they feared that the outgoing administration could disclose intelligence gathered by the US and its allies against Russian operations in Europe and America.
All three officials are from Western European NATO member states and work on Russia-related matters. All asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject, but their identities are known to Insider.
All three officials said their services feared that Trump would rashly declassify intelligence materials that might reveal sources and methods of collection to Russia, potentially putting the methods or even the lives of sources at risk.
The three officials also said European political circles had reached a consensus that Biden had won the election and would take office in January.
Numerous world leaders — including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, two Trump allies — have already congratulated Biden on his victory. Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, has not, with a Kremlin spokesman saying on Monday that it would wait for an "official vote count."
One security official told Insider that "much to everyone's relief, we expect these legal challenges" to states' election results "to be dismissed and Biden to take office."
"The issue is the chaos we see from the Trump administration as it replaces or threatens to replace top security officials that are critical to international security for the next two months," the official said.
On Monday, Trump announced that he had fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. There were rumors that Trump had wanted to fire him since June, when Esper broke with Trump to say he did not want to send active-duty troops into areas where demonstrations were taking place.
Esper told Military Times earlier this month that he feared what Trump might order the military to do, and the thought of a more pliable secretary led Esper to say, "God help us."
'Ethical norms mean nothing to these people'
Top officials continued to be purged from the Department of Defense and other security-service ranks on Tuesday, prompting a defense official to tell CNN, "These are dictator moves."
There was also widespread concern that the heads of the FBI and the CIA could be replaced as soon as Wednesday. The Post reported that CIA Director Gina Haspel had argued strongly last month against declassifying information about Russia.
An official from the Netherlands told Insider: "If these replacements are over the release of classified Russian documents, our service will be very concerned, as we have shared tremendous amounts of intelligence with the United States on Russian disinformation and cyber campaigns.
"If these reports — which appear to be serious — are true, then we are seeing US intelligence officials potentially being replaced for opposing the release of materials."
When asked whether the Dutch intelligence service had been given reassurance that no material collected by the Netherlands and shared with the US would be released, the official was noncommittal but scornful.
"Such assurances, if they were to be given, would currently be meaningless," the official said.
"We have had four years to realize that international agreements and even ethical norms mean nothing to these people," they said of the Trump administration.
European spies braced for tumult
The official refused to say whether the Netherlands had taken direct action to protect any sources and methods from unwanted release but suggested that any service with Russian operations or assets would have to add to its calculations the risk of being publicized by Trump.
"He's done it before on multiple occasions we know about," the official said, referring to a 2017 White House meeting with the Russian ambassador where Trump reportedly shared intelligence on ISIS gathered by Israeli sources.
"It's not an idle concern," they added.
A third official, who specializes in counterintelligence and terrorism, said that even beyond the possibility of Trump-led leaks, European spies were braced for an active two months.
"It's clear that the US will continue to be a very distracted and even crippled world power until January," the official said.
"Much of the world is open for business for bad actors, Russia, Turkey, China, the Israelis," the official said, adding: "Now is the time to act, when the US is not in a position to care. And the window is only 70 days, so everyone knows this could be the best chance to do something the US might otherwise not tolerate."