Donald Trump’s controversial nomination of Tulsi Gabbard as his Director of National Intelligence (DNI) has added to growing internal concerns among UK security services about sharing classified information with the incoming US administration.
Some in the UK’s Secret Service, MI6, are understood to have fears about Trump’s history of leaking classified information as well as his choice of Gabbard as US intelligence chief, two UK sources familiar with the matter told the i.
Gabbard, a former US Army reservist who served in Iraq, was seen as a shock choice as she has no experience in intelligence.
She has previously spoken about Russia’s “legitimate security concerns” regarding Ukraine and played down Syria’s use of chemical weapons. In 2019, Hillary Clinton said a 2020 Democratic primary candidate was a “Russian asset”, but did not name Gabbard directly, but Gabbard outed herself with an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. Clinton also alleged that Russian sources were promoting Gabbard on social media because of her anti-Ukraine views.
The role of Director of National Intelligence is vitally important in US national security as they prepare daily intelligence briefings for the President as well as overseeing the functioning of all 18 US intelligence agencies.
Jamie Metzl, a former national security council official in the Clinton administration, said he understood why allies would have concerns sharing sensitive intelligence with the US, pointing specifically to Gabbard’s nomination for DNI.
He told i: “The US has had one major leak of sensitive docs after another. Now with some of these initial nominations, there is even greater reason to be concerned.
“People like Tulsi Gabbard have supported US adversaries in opposition to America’s positions and its hard to imagine how someone with that record could be trusted to keep secrets.
“If we have people of questionable character in our most sensitive roles it would only be logical for our closest allies to harbour concerns about whether their most important secrets would be secure in our care.”
Trump’s nomination of Gabbard has added to worries among UK intelligence officials about cutting back the level of detail shared with the US to protect the safety of covert sources and the integrity of operations.
One UK intelligence source said discussions were part of normal “intelligence preservation” because of the potential that Trump might represent a threat to UK national interests.
“He is assessed to be vulnerable to more experienced adversaries, who could draw or illicit information from him,” they told i. “The [intelligence] community will be more careful in what he gets briefed in his morning sessions to ‘what he needs to know’ not what ‘he could be told’.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: “We look forward to working with President-elect Trump and his team in office.
“The UK-US relationship is built on a foundation of our deep security, military and intelligence links, as well as our unique cultural and people-to-people ties.
“The UK remains a steadfast Five Eyes alliance member.”
Earlier this week, the i revealed that Trump could threaten to withhold intelligence from the UK to ensure the British PM supports him.
Intelligence officials on both sides of the Atlantic are working to understand how Trump’s victory will affect the special relationship in sharing intelligence with British security sources raising concern over “inadvertent” disclosures of classified information by the new Trump administration.
MI6 has been laying the groundwork for a Trump victory by preparing a UK government dossier on the national security implications of Donald Trump returning to power in the US, the i revealed earlier this year.
Analysts from MI6 assessed the impact of a Trump presidency on national security and international diplomacy as part of a wider dossier being put together and led by the Foreign Office.
During Trump’s first term, he was accused of several significant intelligence leaks that rocked the international community. He shared classified Israeli intelligence about an undercover operation with the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, tweeted a classified satellite image of a failed Iranian rocket launch, allegedly shared classified information about nuclear submarines to an Australian billionaire, and stood accused of leaking information from the investigation into a terrorist attack on an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
Following his electoral defeat in the 2020 US elections, he was accused of illegally hoarding hundreds of boxes containing classified documents — including papers relating to nuclear weapons and spy satellites – at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Senators have the power to reject Trump’s cabinet picks after they come to Capitol Hill for confirmation hearings. While Republicans have a majority in the upper house of 53 to 47, a number of dissenters are expected.
