# H. R. McMaster

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "H. R. McMaster," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/hr-mcmaster/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*National Security Adviser during the May 2017 controversy over Donald Trump's disclosure of intelligence to Russian officials, whose public defence, that the president had not been briefed on the source of the information, John Kiriakou treated as a fork in which either answer reflects badly on McMaster himself.*

- **Role:** National Security Adviser to [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump)
- **Occasion:** May 2017 Oval Office disclosure to Russian officials
- **His defence:** That the president had not been briefed on the source or method
- **Kiriakou's fork:** Either a failure to inform the president, or grounds to resign

**H. R. McMaster** was National Security Adviser to [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump) in May 2017, when reports that the president had disclosed sensitive intelligence to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in the Oval Office produced a public defence from him: that the disclosure was wholly appropriate, and that *"the president wasn't even aware of where this information came from, he wasn't briefed on the source or method of the information either."*[1]

## The fork

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), asked about that defence the following day, called the statement *"something very important"* and then turned it around. Neither branch of it leaves McMaster undamaged.[2]

If the claim is true and the president genuinely did not know the provenance of what he was repeating, *"then shame on General McMaster, because that's his job, to make sure that the president is informed."*[2]

If instead McMaster did brief the president on the information and either withheld the source or failed to convey what Kiriakou calls *"the clandestinity of this source,"* then *"maybe we should be talking today about General McMaster resigning."*[2]

The underlying complaint is not about the president's authority to declassify, which Kiriakou concedes, but about the absence of the [procedure that exists for exactly this purpose](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/declassifying-for-a-foreign-government).[3]

## See also

- [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump)
- [Declassifying for a foreign government](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/declassifying-for-a-foreign-government)
- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)

## Sources

1. Blowing the Whistle / Why Trump Worries Him (2017-05-17), at 00:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAmdo2MzzhE&t=0s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-17-democracy-now-blowing-the-whistle-why-trump-worries-him/
2. Blowing the Whistle / Why Trump Worries Him (2017-05-17), at 03:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAmdo2MzzhE&t=191s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-17-democracy-now-blowing-the-whistle-why-trump-worries-him/
3. Blowing the Whistle / Why Trump Worries Him (2017-05-17), at 02:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAmdo2MzzhE&t=128s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-17-democracy-now-blowing-the-whistle-why-trump-worries-him/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/hr-mcmaster/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt