White House had an 'ethical requirement' to tell reporters about plane swap, former CIA director says

The covert movements that saw U.S. President Donald Trump depart a plane carrying reporters and some White House staff in Turkey last month have few, if any, precedents in modern history, and have left lingering questions.

Following a NATO summit in Ankara, Trump was secretly transferred from Air Force One to a military ​plane via a catering truck in an extraordinary deception prompted by an ​Iranian assassination threat, U.S. media reported.

The White House did not disclose the change — even though reporters and some White House staff remained on Air Force One — and it remained a secret until the Washington Post first reported it on Monday.

Trump, who said Tuesday he was only acting at the direction of the U.S. Secret Service, was accompanied by several close aides to the smaller military aircraft.

Former CIA director John Brennan — a vocal Trump critic whom the president perceives as an enemy worthy of prosecution — said Tuesday the White House had an "ethical requirement" to let the press pool know.

"None of the presidents I worked for would have allowed the White House staff and a planeload of journalists to go if the threat was not mitigated sufficiently for the president," Brennan told MS Now.

Trump had taken a newly renovated, Qatari-donated jet ​to the summit ⁠but said while there that he'd take the older Air Force One — for "old time's sake" — upon departing for the U.K. The statement piqued the curiosity of the press, given that Trump has often expressed his displeasure over the two Air Force One planes that have been in use from 1990 until this year.

The trip to Ankara was also the first time the new plane took Trump overseas, after speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security.

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman has since said "there could have been an off-the-record conversation" with the press about the arrangements, and which kept them off Air Force One.

"The press would then report it later but [officials] would not have potentially jeopardized anyone," she said on the newspaper's podcast The Daily, on Wednesday.

That actually happened in 2000. And apparently, a reporter kept the confidence for 25 years, only discussing it in the wake of this week's revelations.

Susan Page of USA Today told the Post this week about the time in 2000 when President Bill Clinton used an unmarked executive jet to fly into Pakistan, while sending Air Force One as decoy.

"They told me about the extraordinary security procedures being taken because of the dangers in flying there, including use of the decoy plane," she said. "Of course, the dangers threatened the journalists covering the trip as well as President Clinton."

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