White House officials unaware of CIA director's trip to Russia

President Donald Trump personally dispatched the head of the Central Intelligence Agency to Moscow and failed to inform his trusted aides and military leaders, who would normally have received a briefing on the trip, about the message Ratcliffe was to convey to Kremlin representatives, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Ratcliffe's secret trip, which involved flying to Moscow from Latvia on an unmarked C-17 military transport plane, sent European officials scrambling for information after news of the visit spread.

After receiving the information, two European officials stated that the CIA director reiterated to his Russian intelligence counterparts that the United States remains committed to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.

Ratcliffe's visit comes amid recent intelligence assessments indicating that Moscow could test NATO's resolve within the next few years.

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