In an interview with CNN’s Jack Tapper, Brennan responded to a recent decision by Ritcliffe’s former CIA director to disclose notes written in 2016, after which he told then-President Barack Obama on Russian security services intelligence that Clinton’s advice had been approved. “Donald Trump was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
“John Ratcliffe is nothing more than an intelligence professional. He is intimidating the selective declaration of information. It is designed to further the political interests of Donald Trump and the Republicans who ally with him.”
“These were my notes from the 2016 period when I briefed President Obama and the rest of the National Security Council team on what the Russians are and how I accessed Russian information through the US intelligence community and what the Russians were talking about and accusing.” Were doing, ”he added.
The former CIA director also returned to the announcement of Ritcliffe’s heavily reacted CIA memo regarding investigative referrals forwarded to the FBI at the time. The memo notes that the Russians alleged that Clinton’s attempt to set up the scam was “a means of distracting people from using a private email server.”
“If, in fact, what the Russians were accusing Hillary of trying to highlight the reported connections between Trump and the Russians, if it is accurate and big, then nothing is illegal about it.”
“John Ratcliffe and others are trying to portray this as an illegal activity that deserves a follow-up investigation by the FBI. No. It was a campaign activity,” he added.
Allies of the president have seized documents released by Ratcliffe, including Brennan’s notes and a CIA memo, as evidence the FBI should investigate alleged claims that Clinton committed crimes during the 2016 campaign.
They cited documents in an attempt to weaken the consensus assessment of the intelligence community that Russia intervened in Russia to help Trump ahead of the 2020 election – claiming that, without evidence, Clinton tried to fabricate a scam to harm Trump.
CNN confirmed on Tuesday that Ratcliffe had released Brennan’s notes and intelligence memo – a decision that comes a week after it released a letter from the Russian intelligence service outlining claims about Clinton.
In a statement to CNN, Ratcliffe said he had released the documents “at the direction of President Trump.”
“Today, at the direction of President Trump, I announced additional documents relating to ongoing congressional oversight and investigative activities,” it said.
Trump tweeted Tuesday evening about Russia’s investigation, “the only great political CRIM in American history, relating to the Russia Hawks.” Likewise, the Hillary Clinton email scandal.
The message came during a Twitter spree attacking former FBI Director James Kymi, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former Special Adviser Robert Mueller and the FBI, where Trump said he would “release the documents with no reaction.” Trump was quoting Paul Spray, a conscientious journalist and a colleague at the Hoover organization, who wrote that if the documents were announced, it would show that “Russia’s ‘alliance’ allegations against Trump were political, dirty tricks, but they were tricks.”
In a subsequent tweet, however, Trump said he had already released all relevant intelligence – but it is not clear what he was referring to outside the documents released by Ratcliffe in recent days.
But Brennan told CNN on Tuesday that the memo, drafted by Ratcliffe, which he described as Counterintelligence Operation Professional Lead (CIOL), was just one of several documents sent to the FBI regarding Russian activity during the 2016 race.
“There are a lot of other CIOLs that talk about contacts between individuals involved in the Trump campaign and Russians. So the American public might think about trying to balance some of these publications by providing information. He said Trump is spying on Russia’s interactions with those involved in the campaign.” What did the community find out during this period?
Last week, CNN reported that despite concerns raised by the CIA and the National Security Agency, Ratcliffe had made Russian spies vague, with people briefing on the matter.
Career officers of the intelligence agencies were concerned about declassifying the information because it had not been verified and they believed it could disclose sources and methods. Ratcliffe overcame these concerns and sent the document to Lindsay Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary, people said.
That declaratory document, which includes a Russian intelligence assessment from 2016, approved a campaign plan to “create a scandal” against then-candidate Trump by tying Hillary Clinton to Russia and allegations leveled by the Democratic National Committee. Democrats and former intelligence officials said Ratcliffe was politicizing intelligence and sharing anti-Russian information.
He was the latest in a string of declarative documents provided by Ritcliffe and Attorney General William Barr to Senate Republicans and others targeting the FBI’s Russia investigation before the November election.
Ratcliffe noted in a summary he provided to Graham that the intelligence community “does not know the accuracy of this accusation or the extent to which Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.”
Ratcliffe later clarified that the information was “not Russian disintegration.” But multiple intelligence and law enforcement officials say it does not rule out the possibility of disinformation by intelligence agencies.
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