Former Trump CIA Director’s ‘Top Secret’ Memo—for Campaign Cash

Mike Pompeo’s pitch is just a glaring case of ex-intel officials getting involved in politics

It was an email guaranteed to grab my attention. 

“A former CIA Director needs you to read this,” read the subject line. I hastily clicked it open, of course, and discovered, much to my surprise, I was being given “exclusive access” to a “Top Secret memo.” A reporter’s dream,  even if, as I was instructed, all this was being shared on a “strictly off the record” basis.

Alas, the memo didn’t contain any national security secrets. Instead, it was a breathless fundraising pitch from Mike Pompeo, CIA director and secretary of state in Donald Trump’s first term, asking recipients to fork over money to Champion American Values, his political action committee, to help defeat Democrats in next year’s congressional elections.