Binney believes the intelligence community's assessment that Russia-linked hackers stole emails from the DNC as they pushed to sway the election in Trump's favor is bullshit.

The real story, he says, is that a DNC insider stole the emails by downloading them manually from the DNC's server onto a hard drive. Binney says he arrived at this conclusion after conducting an independent analysis of the metadata from the emails with a particular eye toward timestamps that he says indicate a download speed consistent with loading the files onto a thumb drive.

Binney's views have been vigorously rebutted by the intelligence community, which has accused him of cynically advancing his theory to benefit President Trump, whom he supported during the election.

But now, it appears Binney's theory is being discussed at the highest levels within the CIA after the Intercept reported that CIA Director Mike Pompeo met with Binney late last month under the advisement of President Donald Trump.