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Another leak? Trump’s spreadsheet scandal puts ‘lives in danger’
President Donald Trump's administration was reportedly hit with a ‘spreadsheet’ leak
President Donald Trump's administration might be hit with another document ‘leak’ within days of the Atlantic-Signal row. The Rolling Stone on Saturday cited sources to report that two admin spreadsheets with ‘highly sensitive information’ were leaked online.
The report comes after the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he was accidentally added to a Signal group where several Trump officials discussed Yemen attack plans. The Rolling Stone reported that it was not the only leak this week.
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The monthly magazine added that the spreadsheets included information on programs funded by the US State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The alleged leak came after the organizations urged the Trump administration to keep ‘sensitive information private’.
Responding to the ‘leak’ claims, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told The Rolling Stone: “These documents were transmitted to Congress and not publicly released by the State Department.” She further asked the outlet to get in touch with ‘whoever’ was behind the leak.
The spreadsheets reportedly included the State Department's plans to inform international nonprofits that all Congress-approved payments came with some conditions. Rolling Stone further cited sources to add that the organizations were informed to make all grant recipient information public or their funding would be halted.
Making these details public would likely make ‘it easier for those foreign governments to identify citizens or local activists who are associated with those groups and programs’, the report stated.
“Such a move would open up staff and local allies to intimidation, harassment, prosecution, or worse, and provide fodder for officials in these foreign nations who would want to paint dissidents or other political enemies as tools of the United States.”
One executive at an international nonprofit told Rolling Stone: “In all our years of receiving grants from a range of governments, we have never seen the safety of government partners treated with such reckless abandon. People will lose their liberty, and possibly even more, because of this.”
