Trump, Clinton and Russian interference in the elections: US intelligence declassified secret report

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Tuesday, Oct. 6, declassified documents suggesting that former CIA Director John Brennan informed President Barack Obama of Hillary Clinton's alleged "plan" to link then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia as a "means to distract the public from its use. private mail server ”ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Writes about it Fox News.

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Ratcliffe declassified Brennan's handwritten notes, which were made after he briefed Obama on intelligence received by the CIA, and a CIA memo stating that officials had referred the matter to the FBI for possible investigative action.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released the declassified documents to the House Intelligence Committees and the Senate on Tuesday afternoon, October 6.

“Today, at the direction of President Donald Trump, I declassified additional documents relevant to ongoing congressional oversight and investigative activities,” Ratcliffe said.

A source familiar with the documents explained that Brennan's handwritten notes were taken after Obama was briefed on the matter.

“We are receiving additional information about Russian activities from [redacted]. "Hillary Clinton allegedly approved a proposal by one of her foreign policy advisers to smear Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal alleging Russian security interference," Brennan's notes said.

Notes indicate July 28th. Brennan writes "President of the United States" in the margin, but this section of the notes has been edited.

“Any evidence of cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russia,” the notes say.

The rest of the notes have been edited, with the exception of the margins that say JC, Denis, and Susan.

The footnotes do not provide full names, but "JC" may refer to then-FBI Director James Comey, "Susan" may refer to National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and "Denis" may refer to Obama Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.

The declassification came after Ratcliffe shared declassified information with the Senate Judicial Committee last week, which revealed that in September 2016, US intelligence officials sent a request to investigate the Hillary Clinton case, which approved “a plan for US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers obstructing the US elections ”to distract the public from her scandal.

This note was sent to Comey and then Deputy Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strack.

On the subject: Senate report: Trump aide collaborated with Russian intelligence in 2016 elections

“The following information is provided solely for your office's use for background investigation or investigation purposes, as appropriate,” the CIA memo said to Comey and Struck.

“This document contains confidential information that could reveal the source. It should be handled with special care. To avoid possible source compromise, any investigative actions taken in response to the information below should be coordinated in advance with the Central Counterintelligence Center, the memo sent to Comey and Strack said. “It may not be used in any legal proceedings, including FISA applications, without prior permission.”

Ratcliffe told the committee that the Obama administration received data in July 2016 accusing Clinton.

According to Ratcliffe's letter, the intelligence included "the alleged endorsement by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal by one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by fomenting a scandal with allegations of election interference by Russian intelligence agencies."

Nick Merrill, Clinton's press secretary, called the allegations "baseless nonsense."

But Ratcliffe, in a statement issued after the information was released, dismissed the idea that he was promoting "Russian disinformation."

“To be clear, this is not Russian disinformation and this information has not been assessed as such by the intelligence community,” Ratcliffe said in a statement to Fox News. “I will inform Congress of the secret sources and methods by which it was obtained.”

A source familiar with the documents told Fox News on Tuesday, October 6 that the accusation was "not disinformation."

“This is not Russian disinformation. Even Brennan knew, otherwise he would not have informed the President of the United States about it,” the source said. “There is a high threshold for verbally briefing the President of the United States, and he clearly felt this met that threshold.”

Another source familiar with the documents said that "this information was released in the course of hundreds of requests to Congress for legitimate oversight purposes and was not provided for reasons of political malice."

The source added that Brennan's notes are important because they are "words written and immortalized in real time."

Meanwhile, last week, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Comey was asked if he had received a referral to investigate Clinton since 2016, but he said it "didn't happen."

“You don't remember the intelligence community giving you direction for the investigation? On September 7, 2016, US intelligence officials referred James Comey and Strack for investigation into Clinton's approval of a plan against Trump as a means of distraction? Graham asked Comey.

“I don’t remember,” Comey replied.

On the subject: Media: US intelligence believes that Russia will try to intervene in the 2020 presidential election

“It’s surprising you don’t remember,” Graham said. “You have received this request from the intelligence community.”

Graham wondered "how far-fetched this is," citing the fact that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, through the law firm Perkins Coie, hired Fusion GPS and former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to compile and collect information for the dossier against Trump.

The dossier contains allegations of alleged links between Donald Trump and Russia, which served as the basis for warrants received against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Comey argued that this doesn't "sound familiar."

Meanwhile, California-based House Intelligence Rating Committee member Devin Nunez called the information and potentially upcoming documents "smoking weapons."

“The documents that we have seen that are the basis of the charges are weapons,” Nunez said. “This information should definitely be available to the American public.”

Nunez added that there is "even more basic evidence to support" the information published by Ratcliffe, and called the time it took for the president's allies to declassify and release this information "mind-boggling."

“It was very difficult for us to understand this problem, because there are corrupt officials,” Nunez stated.

Last year, Attorney General Bill Barr appointed Connecticut Attorney John Durham to investigate the origins of the Russian FBI investigation once Special Adviser Robert Mueller completed his multi-year investigation into whether Trump was colluding with the Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election.

It is unclear if this information will be considered part of Durham's investigation.

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