Kim Darroch, former UK envoy to US, probed over claims of leaking WH secrets amid 'affair' with ex-CNN journalist
The man played a role in seeing the relations between the US and UK -- two among the world’s oldest allies -- deteriorate. Lord Kim Darroch, the former British ambassador to Washington earned President Donald Trump’s ire last year after leaked cables showed the former calling him “inept” and his administration “uniquely dysfunctional”. The president wanted the diplomat to be sacked and asked his former national security adviser John Bolton to “get him out”. Bolton conveyed the same message to the UK and Lord Darroch quit a few days later.
Lord Darroch, 66, has made the headlines in the US once again, this time over an alleged affair with a journalist. The former diplomat has also been accused of passing White House secrets to former CNN reporter Michelle Kosinski. The former diplomat was eventually cleared of passing information to the 46-year-old Kosinski, who is married with two children.
Lord Darroch was Tony Blair’s European Union advisor and later National Security Advisor to David Cameron.
Kosinski's exclusive article startled Washington officials
According to a report in The Sun, Lord Darroch’s alleged affair with Kosinski went on for several months and the investigation carried out against him by the justice department was launched after top US officials were left surprised by a series of exclusive articles penned by Kosinski, who is now a writer and host at The Perfect Scam, which profiles some of America’s biggest scams. The fact that Kosinski was not among the most recalled names in the US media made the officials even more suspicious.
One such story was about plans for a top-secret visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to North Korea. Though no story was published on that, Washington officials felt more interested to follow Kosinski’s work. Sources told the Sun that it was believed that no one from the US would leak the sensitive information on North Korea for that would turn the pariah state off and the three Americans who were returned, would not have been.
It was also suspected that Kosinski learned from Darroch the plans to make former CIA director Mike Pompeo the secretary of state, which did happen in April 2018 when he replaced Rex Tillerson.
Kosinski reportedly knew about America’s plans to impose tough sanctions on Russia after the poisoning of ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK even though the highly sensitive proposals had reportedly been discussed privately with allies like France, Germany and the UK before the announcement was made public. The Sun cited sources to say that Kosinski knew about the sanctions before they were announced. She also came to know about a closed-door spat between Trump and former US ambassador to the UN -- Nikki Haley.
Lord Darroch denied allegations but quit after irking Trump
The probe against Lord Darroch, who is married for over four decades and has two grown-up children, is also considered to be the first into a serving UK ambassador to the US. He fiercely denied the accusation of having leaked sensitive information and was eventually cleared. His resignation came in July last year after the revelation of his attack on Trump.
The Sun report quoted a security source to say: “The leaks of the cables last year were obviously deeply embarrassing and left Lord Darroch no option but to resign once President Trump made his feelings clear. But for the US to investigate the most senior diplomat of its greatest ally on suspicion of leaking secret information is almost unprecedented.”
The source also said that even though the probe found nothing over the veteran diplomat, the fact that happened is extraordinary.