The White House press secretary did not directly dispute the revelation that Blackwater founder Erik Prince and former Iran-Contra figure Oliver North pitched a plan to develop a private spy network to members of the Trump administration.
The plan, detailed in a story broken by The Intercept on Monday, is to develop a private intelligence network to counter perceived “deep state” enemies within government ranks. Prince denied the report, and North did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.
“I’m not aware of any plans for something of that definition or anything similar to that at this time,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in response to a question from CBS News’s Major Garrett about the story.
Garrett followed up to ask if President Donald Trump “would be opposed” to an outside spy network operating on his behalf. Sanders said she was unaware.
Garrett asked to Sanders to confirm whether any administration official had been briefed on such a network.
“I’m not going to answer some random hypothetical. Did some random person off the street come in and say something? I don’t know,” Sanders said.
And finally, Garrett asked if it was an idea Trump would consider.
“Again, I haven’t asked him, but it’s not something that’s currently in the works,” Sanders replied.
Watch the exchange below:
A White House official later told New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman that the proposal was indeed pitched to the Trump administration, but there is no sign the president himself was briefed. A White House official also confirmed to CNN that the plan was pitched, adding that “this idea is going nowhere.”
Got clarification on this from a WH official, who says administration was pitched but no sign Trump was briefed https://t.co/m7PNNVP6rW
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 5, 2017
Democrats on Capitol Hill swiftly condemned the plan.
“I read the report and if that report is accurate, that would be exceptionally troubling,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told The Intercept when asked about the story.
“The first thing that comes to mind is, how’s something like that can even be legal?” Wyden added, noting that he would continue to look into the issue.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., also decried the proposal.
“This is an Orwellian scenario of government action that is not accountable to either the law or the voters. It contradicts the very principle of limited, popular government that defines our nation,” Khanna told The Intercept in a statement. “Congress must ask CIA Director [Mike] Pompeo directly about any such effort and get answers.”
Update: Dec. 6, 2017, 9:05 a.m.
This story was updated to indicate that CNN also obtained confirmation that the plan was pitched to the White House.
Top photo: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2017.
But Maxine Waters bragging about Obama’s spying on everyone, doesn’t bother liberals one bit………….
Sounds like another job for Mueller – conspiracy to undermine the legitimate US government….. or similar.
Mueller and everyone else in the federal government.
How long are we going to have to endear this fascist call the man with small hands?
Brownshirts
Sarah Huckabee Sanders has rancid sh!t where her humanity should be.
How very Knights Templar.
I want to hear what CIA dir Pompeo has to say. Jus b/c Trump is delusional and paranoid doesn’t mean the whole country has to go down an Erik Prince/Ollie North hole. MeFarland or McFarlane @ the Mayflower either! Bunch of CTs that loved Bannon’s pulling together all the Gamergate bros w/ ct folk, white nationalists—Bannon should really get person of year,as this year is likely high water mark w/ Moore.
What a freaking group of trolls.
This continues to be what the Mafia has always done.. keep “the big man” at arm’s length by having underlings negotiate and do the dirty work.. that way Huckabee can honestly say “He had no knowledge. And wasn’t involved”.
They fear a Deep State. And that it’s not them.
I have a name for this new black agency.
“Division.”
Brownshirts seems right.
Keep up the good work
Eric Prince is a very dangerous man…
the is a deep state of paranoid republicans. this is too stopped to consider, but so is Trump being the president.
Is Israel giving Trump first peek at Tempora’s full frontals by forging eternal war for war pigs’ profits? I think I know how Trump is gonna build his own spook house, now…Thanks for the heads up. Time to cut cords with Israel, Bude.
Firms like those employed by serial sex abusers to silence their victims are said to serve only a fifth of their skill set to the tabloid press accordion to the UK’s SOCA Report, What Price Privacy. The remainder is purchased by corporations, insurance companies, legal firms (who can manage an individual’s harassment secretly, and wealthy persons on their own accordions.
So, who do you guys use, or are we all just whistling in the spook house?
How is Betsy Devos’ relative a ‘random person off the street’? C’mon try better!
Well, if CNN “also obtained confirmation” then it must be true LOL
This deluded erratic man is already in the firm clutches of the Deep State, confined to his room and limited to propaganda from Faux News and various conspiracy nets. His movements and words are censured and controlled by the generals who know full well how dangerous he is to world peace. It is a velvet-gloved coup by the MIC, and makes a fraud of democratic process.
The so-called “Deep State” is showing signs of internal dissent on a massive scale, like cancer breaking out in the body of the Empire. This has been brewing for some time; for example we had Ashton Carter at the Pentagon actively fighting John Kerry over a ceasefire in Syria in 2016, culminating in a bizarre air attack on Syrian government forces in Deir Ezzor by the Pentagon that gave ISIS an advantage and disrupted the peace talks.
https://astutenews.com/2016/09/20/why-us-had-to-kill-the-syrian-ceasefire/
We also had the CIA-backed forces out of Turkey fighting with the Pentagon-backed forces out of the Kurdish zone fighting each other, as the LA Times reported in 2016:
As far as the MIC, well Congress – including almost all Democrats – approved the $80 billion increase in military spending with no qualms, so they’re all united on that – more swill for the hog trough. But make no mistake, the imperial system would have definitely chosen the predictable Hillary Clinton over the incompetent Donald Trump as their preferred vehicle for continued expansion – another sign of loss of control of events.
Bizarre is a word that aptly describes everything that surrounds Trump. When or if we ever get to look back at this period of American history, it can/should be referred to as “The Bizarre Years” or “The Kingdom of Bizarre” or “The Bizarre Era.”
Wait a minute, “Pearls” Hucksterbee! Where is your necklace? It was the only fashion necessary that gave you any credibility, in that it reminded us of brainy Lisa Simpson.
In fairness though, I suspect that Master Trump likes your new school girl outfit very much. Yummy!
Ms. Huckleberry is not Trump’s type. He likes them blond, young, feminine and stupid.
Private enterprises will need private intelligence and surveillance. Therefore, it would make consistent sense to deny, deny, and then double-down before year 1. I would be even more interested in Trumplandia’s Room 101 questioning reception center for traitors rounded-up in this new backdoor private spy apparatus.
Isn’t that Intercept report merely anonymous deep state officials attempting to undermine a democratically elected president? I mean, I remember that’s what Greenwald was saying when there were previously all kinds of leaks against Trump.
And speaking of leaks, wasn’t this reporting done by Matthew Cole, whose reporting has now led to the prosecution of two separate whistleblowers? Why should he be treated as credible? How did The Intercept deal with its prior shoddy reporting? Reed’s explanation was thin.
I am of course merely being skeptical, which is what The Intercept so champions.
Such gallant and honorable defense of the (so-called) democratically elected president. Where was your respect of the former democratically elected president, eh? Not that I personally give a shit about either one of them but, in all honesty, your malignant hypocrisy is showing.
‘Being skeptical’ and ‘attempting to redirect’ are two different things. First, let’s dispense with your redirection attempt:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-intercept-failed-to-shield-its-confidential-source-now-its-making-amends/2017/07/11/9d41284a-65d8-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html
Yes, confidential sources would be better off leaking documents to Wikileaks than to the Intercept, which is just too close to Silicon Valley billionaires who donated heavily to Hillary Clinton (and who have lots of secret federal contracts for tech services) to be unquestioningly trusted.
However, the original story about Erik Prince’s little plot seems to have gained a lot more credibility thanks to the White House’s refusal to issue a blank denial, hasn’t it? As far as “the Deep State undermining Trump’s presidency”, I think what you’re seeing is some bureaucratic intransigence in the intelligence agencies, who despise Tump as a moronic incompetent, along with full cooperation in the domestic sector, which is working overtime to give oligarchs in the fossil fuel sector everything they want (EPA, Interior, Energy, etc.). State is now Tillerson country, aka Exxon’s diplomatic arm.
Trump, having made his name as a corrupt real estate hustler and blowhard reality TV star, is just behaving as expected. Poke it with a stick, watch it destroy the china shop.
This kind of behavior by billionaires and corrupt politicians, seeking out private intelligence groups to do their bidding, is nothing new – look at Harvey Weinstein, Trump’s evil twin, hiring the ex-Mossad ‘Black Cube’ firm in an attempt to discredit his many accusers, or Nixon and his ‘plumbers’. Birds of a feather.