Documents declassified on Tuesday by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe — “at the direction of President Donald Trump” — reveal that “former CIA Director John Brennan briefed former President Obama on Hillary Clinton’s purported ‘plan’ to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia as ‘a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server’ ahead of the 2016 presidential election,” Fox News reported exclusively.
The DNI declassified Brennan’s handwritten notes, which were made after he told Obama about the intelligence his agency had discovered, as well as a CIA memo revealing that officials with the spy agency then referred the matter to the FBI, which was run by another Trump hater at the time, James Comey.
Fox News reported that Ratcliffe declassified the documents to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on Tuesday.
“Today, at the direction of President Trump, I declassified additional documents relevant to ongoing Congressional oversight and investigative activities,” Ratcliffe, a former federal prosecutor and U.S. representative from Texas before Trump tapped him for his post earlier this year, told the network.
Sources told the outlet that Brennan crafted his notes after meeting with Obama and bringing him up to speed on Trump’s then-Democratic rival (and former secretary of state for Obama).
“We’re getting additional insight into Russian activities from [REDACTED],” said Brennan’s notes.
“CITE [summarizing] alleged approved by Hillary Clinton a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service,” Brennan’s notes continued.
The notes say “on 28 of July.” And in the margin, the former CIA director and vehement Trump critic wrote “POTUS,” but that section is redacted.
The remainder of Brennan’s notes have also been redacted, but there is more in the margins, including “JC,” “Denis,” and “Susan.”
Brennan did not spell out full names but he could have been referring to James Comey (JC); Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser; and Denis McDonough, Obama’s chief of staff.
Fox News adds:
The declassification comes after Ratcliffe, last week, shared newly-declassified information with the Senate Judiciary Committee which revealed that in September 2016, U.S. intelligence officials forwarded an investigative referral on Hillary Clinton purportedly approving “a plan concerning U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections” in order to distract the public from her email scandal.
That referral was sent to Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok.
“The following information is provided for the exclusive use of your bureau for background investigative action or lead purposes as appropriate,” the CIA’s memo to both men said.
“This memorandum contains sensitive information that could be source revealing. It should be handled with particular attention to compartmentation and need-to-know. To avoid the possible compromise of the source, any investigative action taken in response to the information below should be coordinated in advance with Chief Counterintelligence Mission Center, Legal,” the memo read. “It may not be used in any legal proceeding—including FISA applications—without prior approval…"
“Per FBI verbal request, CIA provides the below examples of information the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE fusion cell has gleaned to date," the memo continues. “An exchange [REDACTED] discussing US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s approval of a plan concerning US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.”
The memo is also heavily redacted.
Naturally, a spokesman for Clinton disparaged both the intelligence and the Trump administration.
But, no doubt expecting such pushback, Ratcliffe clarified he wasn’t pushing Russian disinformation but rather a CIA determination of Russian actions.
“To be clear, this is not Russian disinformation and has not been assessed as such by the Intelligence Community,” Ratcliffe told Fox News. “I’ll be briefing Congress on the sensitive sources and methods by which it was obtained in the coming days.”
A separate source told the network: “This is not Russian disinformation. Even Brennan knew, or he wouldn't be briefing the president of the United States on it. There is a high threshold to orally brief the president of the United States and he clearly felt this met that threshold.”
Last week during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey claimed in questioning from Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that he didn’t remember the CIA’s briefing memo regarding Clinton’s plot (and remember, it was Comey who let Clinton off the hook for her mishandling of classified emails).
“You don’t remember getting an investigatory lead from the intelligence community? Sept. 7, 2016, U.S. intelligence officials forwarded an investigative referral to James Comey and Strzok regarding Clinton’s approval of a plan [about] Trump…as a means of distraction?” Graham asked.
“That doesn’t ring any bells with me,” Comey claimed.
Yeah, right.
“That’s a pretty stunning thing that it doesn’t ring a bell,” Graham shot back. “You get this inquiry from the intelligence community to look at the Clinton campaign trying to create a distraction, accusing Trump of being a Russian agent or a Russian stooge.”
House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) who has been all over this from the outset, called the impending revelations “smoking guns” on Sunday.
"The documents that are underlying that we now have seen, I have only seen a few of those – they’re smoking guns,” Nunes said on “Sunday Morning Futures” this week. “That information definitely needs to be made available to the American public.
“This has been a very difficult task for us to get to the bottom of, because you have corrupt officials,” he added.
Now, the bigger question is this: Will Hillary Clinton, James Comey, John Brennan and, yes, even the god king Barack Obama, be brought up on sedition charges?
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