Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe revealed Tuesday afternoon that former Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was referred by federal officials to the FBI for investigation after allegedly approving of a plan to “stir up a scandal against” Trump by tying him to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ratcliffe made the bombshell revelations in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham. Ratcliffe’s letter contained three major points:
- In late July 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies obtained 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 Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee. The IC does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.
- According to his handwritten notes, former Central Intelligence Agency Director [John] Brennan subsequently briefed President Obama and other senior national security officials on the 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.”
- On 07 September 2016, U.S. intelligence officials forwarded an investigative referral to FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok 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 mail server.”
“As referenced in his 24 September 2020 letter to your Committee, Attorney General [William] Barr has advised that the disclosure of this information will not interfere with ongoing Department of Justice investigations,” Ratcliffe added. “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.”
BREAKING: On July 26, 2016, U.S. intel authorities learned that Russian intel knew of Hillary Clinton's plans to cook up a scandal alleging that Trump was working with Russia. Obama was personally briefed on Russia's knowledge of Clinton's plans. pic.twitter.com/jOeRyXIlYA
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 29, 2020
Politico published a report trying to downplay the letter from Ratcliffe, saying that members of the Committee said the newly declassified information was Russian information.
Ratcliffe immediately disputed Politico’s report, saying in a statement: “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.”
New statement here from Ratcliffe saying this is *not* Russian disinformation. pic.twitter.com/2dBA0j7bNw
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) September 29, 2020
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