Security officials say the US will be a ‘crippled world power’ until Biden takes over, and fear Trump will declassify intelligence that will help Putin

• Three European security officials told Insider that their services fear that President Trump will rashly declassify intelligence materials in his last few months in office — an act that could reveal sources and methods of collection to Russia and other US adversaries.
• Their comments came as The Washington Post reported that Trump has 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 warned.
• One counterterrorism official told Insider: “It’s clear that the US will continue to be a very distracted and even crippled world power until January,” when President-elect Biden takes over.
• The source warned that “bad actors” like Russia and China could cause trouble during this time.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

As President Donald Trump refuses to concede the 2020 election to President-elect Joe Biden, security officials are warning that Trump could rashly release classified intelligence that would put allied sources at risk, and benefit Russia and other US adversaries.

According to The Washington Post’s David Ignatius, Trump has 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 fear that the outgoing administration could disclose intelligence gathered by the US and its allies against Russian operations in Europe and America.

All of the three officials are from Western European NATO member states, and work on Russia-related matters. All asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject, but their identities are known to Insider.

All three officials confirmed that their services fear that Trump will 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.

All three sources also agreed that European political circles have reached a consensus that Biden had properly won the election and would take office on January 21.

Indeed, numerous world leaders — including Trump allies UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — have already congratulated Biden on his victory. Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, has so far not congratulated Biden, with a Kremlin spokesman saying on Monday it would wait for an "official vote count."

One security official told Insider: "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 source said.

On Monday, Trump announced that he had fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. There have been rumors that Trump 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 nationwide demonstrations were taking place this summer.

Esper responded to his sacking by telling the Military Times 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'

On Tuesday, top officials continued to be purged from the Department of Defense and other security service ranks, prompting one defense official to tell CNN: "These are dictator moves."

There was also widespread concern that the heads of the FBI and CIA could be replaced as soon as Wednesday. According to The Washington Post, CIA Director Gina Haspel had argued strongly against declassifying the information about Russia last month.

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 if 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," said the official.

"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 a tumultuous

The official refused to say if the Netherlands had taken direct action to protect any sources and methods from potential unwanted release, but suggested that any service with Russian operations or assets would have to add the risk of being publicized by Trump to its calculations.

"He's done it before on multiple occasions we know about," the source said, referring to an infamous 2017 White House meeting between Trump and the Russian ambassador, where Trump reportedly shared intelligence on ISIS gathered by Israeli sources.

"It's not an idle concern."

A third official, who specializes in counterintelligence and terrorism, said that even beyond the possibility of Trump-led leaks, European spies are 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, referring to Biden's inauguration in January 2021.

"Much of the world is open for business for bad actors, Russia, Turkey, China, the Israelis ... 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."