dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Obama was briefed on unverified Russian report claiming Clinton approved plan to tie Trump to Putin and DNC hack

President Barack Obama was briefed in the summer of 2016 about an unverified Russian intelligence analysis that claimed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was then the Democratic presidential nominee, approved an effort to tie candidate Donald Trump to Russia’s hack of the Democratic National Committee, the nation's top spy chief revealed on Tuesday. A one-page letter Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe sent to and released by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said U.S. intelligence agencies obtained, in late July 2016, "insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Russians' hacking of the Democratic National Committee." But, Ratcliffe stressed, the intelligence community "does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.” The release of this information, just hours before the first debate between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden and one day before former FBI Director James Comey testifies before Graham's committee, was met with instant condemnation by Democrats in Congress and national security veterans. "It's very disturbing to me that 35 days before an election, a director of national intelligence would release unverified Russian rumint," Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, told reporters.

Rachel Cohen, the communications director for Warner, tweeted, “Laundered by the Director Of National Intelligence and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is extraordinary.” Ratcliffe released a statement to the Washington Examiner less than two hours after Graham unveiled his letter to address the backlash. "To be clear, this is not Russian disinformation and has not been assessed as such by the intelligence community. I'll be briefing Congress on the sensitive sources and methods by which it was obtained in the coming days," he said. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner's request for comment. Ratcliffe's letter said that handwritten notes by former CIA Director John Brennan show he briefed Obama and other top national security officials on the Russian intelligence, including the “alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services.” Brennan did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner's request for comment. “This latest information provided by DNI Ratcliffe shows there may have been a double standard by the FBI regarding allegations against the Clinton campaign and Russia,” Graham said on Tuesday. “Whether these allegations are accurate is not the question. The question is did the FBI investigate the allegations against Clinton like they did Trump? If not, why not? If so, what was the scope of the investigation? If none, why was that?”

Ratcliffe, a former Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee who became director of national intelligence in late May, said that U.S. intelligence officials also forwarded an investigative referral to Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok on Sept. 7, 2016, regarding “U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's approval of a plan concerning U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” Ratcliffe noted that Attorney General William Barr “has advised that the disclosure of this information will not interfere with ongoing Department of Justice investigations” and told Graham that “additional declassification and public disclosure of related intelligence remains under consideration; however, the IC welcomes the opportunity to provide a classified briefing with further detail at your convenience.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/obama-was-briefed-on-unverified-russian-report-claiming-clinton-approved-plan-to-tie-trump-to-putin-and-dnc-hack

https://www.scribd.com/document/478018814/Ractliffe-Declassification-September-29-2020#from_embed