But former intelligence officers say potentially critical raw intelligence, even if unconfirmed, is widely shared and should reach the president.
"The first myth about raw intelligence is that it is only seen by one analyst or a group of analysts," said
David Priess, a former CIA officer who wrote
a history of the presidential security briefings called
The President's Book of Secrets. "In fact, raw intelligence is disseminated around the national security community. The White House Situation Room gets a feed of direct, raw intelligence, too."
Dan Hoffman, a former CIA station chief in Moscow who also worked in the Middle East, says it's important to share intelligence as widely and as quickly as possible.
"I served three years in overseas combat zones collecting this sort of tactical intelligence," he said. "It's not like fine wine getting better with age. You've got to get it out to the people at risk; that means our soldiers but also coalition forces."
"My concern as an intelligence officer would be, I don't want the president or his national security adviser to be blindsided when [British] Prime Minister Boris Johnson says, 'Hey, about that reporting we received that the Russians have a bounty out for our people in Afghanistan ...' " Hoffman said.