Senator: If Russia is continuing to influence actions in the US, then ‘God save us all’

Patrick Leahy speaking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Monday May 15th, 2017

Senator Patrick Leahy, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed concern on CNN Monday over whether or not Russia was still “influencing” the actions of the United States.

“If they are, then God save us all, because whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent, you’d better fear for the United States of America,” the Vermont Democrat said.

Trump was accused in a Washington Post article of having revealed highly classified information to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during their meeting in the Oval Office last week.

The information Trump revealed could have potentially jeopardized a key intelligence source on ISIS, according to the Washington Post, and the president did not have permission from the source to reveal the information. However, as president he was within his legal right to reveal the information.

“It would be almost inconceivable that any president would allow something of that nature out,” Leahy said, when asked by Wolf Blitzer about the possibility of Trump leaking sensitive intelligence to the Russians.

Leahy said that Trump’s potential leak could cause distrust between the US and its sources. He said the US has operatives that lay in “deep cover” for years “waiting for that one time” they might have necessary information.

“We have very few allies we can share that information with,” Leahy said. “We do it with the British … but very few others.”

Leahy also noted that the US has to “rely on countries that normally we don’t deal a lot with to on occasion give us information.”

He added the US does not want to “turn off those sources” because American operatives “can’t be in every single place in the world every single time. If we can’t rely on others to help us, then we’re in deep trouble.”