US Government Investigates Leak of Highly Classified Documents Showing Infighting Among Russian Officials and Wagner Group’s Interest in Haiti

The New York Times (NYT) reported Thursday on a new trove of classified US intelligence documents that suggest infighting between Russian officials, including some within the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Defense Ministry. The documents, which were posted on one of the Discord servers, also reportedly show that associates of the Russian mercenary outfit Wagner Group had planned to visit the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti to seek out possible government contracts that could see them fighting local gangs.

The NYT said it had shown the new 27-pages of documents to multiple US officials, who did not dispute the information but “could not, and would not, independently verify the documents.” The US has said that the first set of documents released last week were authentic but has said that some of the documents were not legitimate and had been altered.

The account of the Wagner Group’s alleged interest in Haiti is one of several references to the mercenaries in the trove of Defense Department documents that surfaced online in recent weeks. The Biden administration says the documents appear to include highly classified material.

The US government has not commented on the latest leak of documents, but it is clear that the documents contain sensitive information that could have serious implications for US-Russian relations. The US government is likely to investigate the source of the leak and take steps to ensure that similar leaks do not occur in the future.

CNN has not independently verified the documents. It is unclear at this time what the consequences of the leak will be, but it is clear that the US government is taking the matter seriously and will be taking steps to protect classified information in the future.