CIA director states Russiagate plotted against Trump
(MENAFN) CIA Director John Ratcliffe has stated that a U.S. intelligence report concerning Russia's alleged involvement in the 2016 presidential election was intentionally crafted to damage Donald Trump’s presidency, based on a recent internal agency review.
The report, known as the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), was commissioned by then-President Barack Obama just weeks before he left office. According to Ratcliffe, this assessment gave rise to the broader Russiagate narrative, triggered Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and significantly disrupted the early years of Trump’s presidency.
In an interview published Wednesday, Ratcliffe explained that the CIA’s internal probe into the origins of the report revealed substantial flaws in its creation. The review concluded that the process was rushed and irregular, noting that former intelligence leaders—CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper—played an abnormally dominant role in compiling the assessment.
“The rushed timeline to publish both classified and unclassified versions before the presidential transition raised questions about a potential political motive behind the White House tasking and timeline,” the review said, describing the report’s preparation as “chaotic,” “atypical,” and “markedly unconventional.”
The internal review also found that Brennan took the lead in shaping the ICA and pushed for the inclusion of the Steele dossier, a collection of unverified allegations linking Trump to Russia. This dossier was created by ex-British spy Christopher Steele and was reportedly financed by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
“This was Obama, Comey, Clapper, and Brennan deciding, ‘We’re going to screw Trump,’” Ratcliffe said. “It was, ‘We’re going to create this and put the imprimatur of an IC assessment in a way that nobody can question it.’ They stamped it as Russian collusion and then classified it so nobody could see it.”
He further accused the intelligence leaders of overriding the input of experienced analysts to shape the narrative. “Brennan and Clapper and Comey manipulated [and] silenced all the career professionals and railroaded the process,” the CIA director added.
The review also criticized how the public’s perception was influenced by strategic leaks to major news outlets, which often cited anonymous officials.
“Before work on the assessment even began, media leaks suggesting that the IC had already reached definitive conclusions risked creating an anchoring bias,” the review noted.
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