Investigators Don't Leak

There is an interesting article by another intelligence officer online. There are many important points about the difference between intelligence and evidence and why intelligence officials and investigators have to keep a lid on what they're doing. Here's just one of them:

While the intelligence and the law enforcement communities work together in CI cases, it is critical not to conflate secretly acquired intelligence with evidence. By its very nature, intelligence is fragmentary. An overheard conversation of a Russian intelligence officer speaking about an American official is intelligence worth collecting. Of course, it would be unfair to the official in question if we took the information as gospel. It may or may not be accurate. Evidence, on the other hand, is the government’s final assessment of a fact. It is information that has been vetted and prepared to take to a jury. So, when Trey Gowdy pressed the Director of CIA to answer under oath a question like, “Do you have evidence of Trump-Russia collusion or not?”, he knows full well that an intelligence professional can never claim to have collected “evidence.”

  The Cipher Brief

On the other hand, I think Trey Gowdy is pretty well convinced of the Trump Cabal's guilt already.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.