Newly declassified intelligence documents released Thursday revealed Hillary Clinton personally approved a campaign plan to &#8220;smear&#8221; then-candidate Donald Trump with false Russian collusion claims to distract from her email scandal during the 2016 presidential race.
Special counsel John Durham uncovered the information during his multi-year investigation into intelligence activities during the 2016 election.
The <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/895553887/Declassified-Durham-Annex-Released-by-Chairman-Grassley#download&amp;from_embed">intelligence</a>, released Monday by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), came from two memos obtained by the Obama administration containing &#8220;confidential conversations&#8221; between members of the DNC and George Soros&#8217;s Open Society Foundations before the 2016 election.
According to the declassified files, Clinton personally approved a plan proposed by her foreign policy advisor, Julianne Smith, to &#8220;smear Donald Trump by magnifying the scandal tied to the intrusion by the Russian special services in the pre-election process to benefit the Republican candidate.&#8221; Smith was later appointed to serve as Ambassador to NATO under President Joe Biden.
One stunning email written by Open Society Foundations Senior Vice President Leonard Bernardo, dated July 27, 2016, stated: &#8220;HRC [Hillary Clinton] approved Julia&#8217;s [sic] idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections. That should distract people from her own missing email, especially if the affair goes to the Olympic level.&#8221;
&#8220;The point is making the Russian play a U.S. domestic issue,&#8221; Bernado continued, adding, &#8220;In absence of direct evidence, Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect will supply the media, and GRU [Russia&#8217;s foreign intelligence arm] will hopefully carry on to give more facts.&#8221;
Durham’s team spoke with analysts and officers who assessed these emails were likely authentic. The special counsel&#8217;s team believe the emails, apparently from Benardo, were a &#8220;composite&#8221; of emails hacked by Russian intelligence from U.S. think tanks.
The Clinton campaign&#8217;s plan included &#8220;raising the theme of &#8216;Putin&#8217;s support for Trump'&#8221; and pushing public opinion to &#8220;equate&#8221; the Russian leader&#8217;s influence campaign with actual election infrastructure hacking. It also involved distributing &#8220;the necessary information through the FBI-affiliated … technical structures … in particular, the Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect companies, from where the information would then be disseminated through leading U.S. publications,&#8221; according to another email from Bernardo.
The email predicted that the FBI would &#8220;put more oil into the fire&#8221; of the Russia collusion narrative, with Obama even <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/31/us-news/hillary-clinton-approved-plan-hatched-by-campaign-aides-to-smear-trump-with-russia-collusion-declassified-docs/">considering</a> shutting down the bureau&#8217;s investigation into Clinton&#8217;s emails, according to the New York Post.
&#8220;Smith was, at minimum, playing a role in the Clinton campaign&#8217;s efforts to tie Trump to Russia,&#8221; Durham concluded.
Senator Chuck Grassley <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/newly-declassified-appendix-to-durham-report-sheds-additional-light-on-clinton-campaign-plan-to-falsely-tie-trump-to-russia-and-fbis-failure-to-investigate">said</a> in a statement: &#8220;Based on the Durham annex, the Obama FBI failed to adequately review and investigate intelligence reports showing the Clinton campaign may have been ginning up the fake Trump-Russia narrative for Clinton&#8217;s political gain, which was ultimately done through the Steele Dossier and other means.&#8221;
&#8220;The American people deserve the full, unfiltered truth about the Russia collusion hoax and the political abuse of our justice system it exposed,&#8221; FBI Director Kash Patel stated, characterizing it as &#8220;one of the most shameful frauds ever perpetrated on the American public.&#8221;
The Russia collusion narrative dominated headlines for years during the first Trump administration. It led to multiple investigations, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s probe, which ultimately found no evidence of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The Inauguration Of Donald J. Trump As The 47th President

Hillary Clinton Greenlit Russia Hoax To Hide Email Scandal, Declassified Docs Reveal

2016 Election

Barack Obama

Christopher Steele

Donald Trump

Elections

Hillary Clinton

Politics

Russia Collusion Hoax

Trump Administration

Legacy media outlets that pushed the Russia collusion hoax are downplaying bombshell documents released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, which reveal that the Obama administration suppressed intelligence proving that Russian meddling did not impact the 2016 election. 
The <a href="https://www.odni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/DIG/DIG-Russia-Hoax-Memo-and-Timeline_revisited.pdf">documents</a> show that President Barack Obama ordered a new intelligence community assessment into alleged Russian meddling just one day after the suppression of an intel draft report showed Russia had no impact on election results. In response to the documents, media outlets have accused Gabbard of &#8220;rewriting&#8221; history around the Obama administration&#8217;s role in perpetuating the Russia narrative.  
On Tuesday, CNN published an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/22/politics/how-tulsi-gabbard-is-trying-to-rewrite-history-of-the-russia-investigation?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc&amp;recs_exp=up-next-article-end&amp;tenant_id=related.en">article</a> suggesting that Gabbard was “misleading” the public about the Russia hoax, saying that her “allegations about the Russia investigation don’t add up.” NBC published an <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trumps-intelligence-chiefs-try-rewrite-history-2016-election-rcna220103">article</a> claiming that Gabbard was attempting to “rewrite the history of the 2016 election.” 
The articles claim that Gabbard said there were no Russian efforts to interfere in the election at all. But Gabbard&#8217;s memo on the declassified documents actually notes that there “is still supporting evidence indicating the Russian government directed hacking” of the Democratic National Committee. 
What the media outlets dismiss is that the newly-released documents show a consensus in December 2019 from intelligence officials that Russia did not impact the outcome of the election, and that Russia did not have the ability to actually impact the election results. 
For example, talking points from the office of then-National Intelligence Director James Clapper on December 7 found that “Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the US Presidential election outcome” and that “We have no evidence of cyber manipulation of election infrastructure intended to alter results.”
A Presidential Daily Briefing draft for December 8, 2016, contains the same points. 
“We assess Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure,” intelligence officials stated in the unpublished draft.
An intelligence official killed the publication of the draft that day due to “high administration interest,” and the FBI yanked co-authorship to draft a dissent. 
Just one day later, on December 9, Obama asked the intelligence community to come up with a new assessment of Russian meddling. That same day, The Washington Post published an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html">article</a> citing anonymous intelligence officials who said that the CIA concluded that Russia “intervened” to help Trump win the presidency, &#8220;rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system.” 
As Gabbard&#8217;s memo notes, “there is no official [intelligence community] assessment that contains that conclusion.”
CNN’s Tuesday article also cited unnamed “congressional sources” who disputed Gabbard’s claim that the discredited Steele Dossier — paid for by the Clinton campaign — informed the January 2017 intelligence assessment commissioned by Obama that claimed a larger role for Russia in the 2016 election. 
However, as documents released by Gabbard show, an intelligence community whistleblower was informed that the Steele Dossier “was a factor” in the Obama 2017 Russia intelligence assessment. Then-CIA Director John Ratcliffe also found that the dossier was included in the assessment, writing in a recent report that this “ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.”
Both CNN and NBC also said that the intelligence community never claimed Russia hacked the 2016 election. But nearly two-thirds of Democrats polled in 2018 <a href="https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/20383-russias-impact-election-seen-through-partisan-eyes">believed</a> that Russian hacking changed voting totals in the election. 
That came after headlines like “Obama orders review of Russian election-related hacking” from CNN and “U.S. Officials: Putin Personally Involved in U.S. Election Hack” from NBC. 
Gabbard has reportedly sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department over the Obama administration&#8217;s intelligence assessment in January 2017.
“There’s no question in my mind that this intelligence community assessment that President Obama ordered be published which contained a manufactured intelligence document — it’s worse than even politicization of intelligence,” Gabbard <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6375881194112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Fox News last week. “It was manufactured intelligence that sought to achieve President Obama and his team’s objective, which was undermining President Trump’s presidency and subverting the will of the American people.”

President Trump Holds Cabinet Meeting

Same News Orgs That Pushed Russia Hoax Now Claim Gabbard’s Intel Bombshells Are Misleading

Director of National Intelligence

Tulsi Gabbard

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents Friday revealing that the Obama administration changed intelligence assessments after the 2016 election to create a narrative of Russian interference, despite earlier intelligence community findings that Russia &#8220;did not impact&#8221; the election through cyber activities.
The intelligence community concluded before the election that Russia was &#8220;probably not trying … to influence the election by using cyber means,&#8221; according to the declassified records <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/obama-admin-manufactured-intelligence-create-2016-russian-election-interference-narrative-documents-show">obtained</a> by Fox News. However, following Trump’s unexpected victory over Hillary Clinton, their tone appeared to have changed.
“On Dec 8, 2016, IC officials prepared an assessment for the President&#8217;s Daily Brief, finding that Russia ‘did not impact recent U.S. election results’ by conducting cyber attacks on infrastructure,” Gabbard wrote in a thread on X. “Before it could reach the President, it was abruptly pulled ‘based on new guidance.’ This key intelligence assessment was never published.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🧵 Americans will finally learn the truth about how in 2016, intelligence was politicized and weaponized by the most powerful people in the Obama Administration to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>, subverting the… <a href="https://t.co/UQKKZ5c4Op">pic.twitter.com/UQKKZ5c4Op</a>
&mdash; DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) <a href="https://twitter.com/DNIGabbard/status/1946271402971312514?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The presidential brief prepared for President Obama on December 8, 2016, stated: &#8220;We assess that Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure,” noting that any Russian activities &#8220;probably were intended to cause psychological effects, such as undermining the credibility of the election process and candidates.&#8221;
The brief concluded that it was &#8220;highly unlikely&#8221; Russian interference &#8220;would have resulted in altering any state’s official vote result.&#8221;
&#8220;Criminal activity also failed to reach the scale and sophistication necessary to change election outcomes,&#8221; it stated.
The FBI raised immediate objections to the brief and requested that its publication be delayed until the bureau could address its concerns. Under then-Director James Comey, the FBI drafted a formal &#8220;dissent&#8221; to the original briefing.
Subsequently, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence postponed internal publication of the Presidential Daily Brief, citing &#8220;new guidance&#8221; as the reason for the delay.
Just one day later, on December 9, a meeting was called in the White House Situation Room to discuss Russian election interference with top officials, including then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice, then-Secretary of State John Kerry, and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Following this meeting, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper threw out the old analysis and tasked intelligence leaders with crafting a new assessment &#8220;per the president&#8217;s request,&#8221; detailing &#8220;tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election.&#8221;
Gabbard revealed: “According to whistleblower emails shared with us today, we know Clapper and Brennan used the baseless discredited Steele Dossier as a source to push this false narrative in the intelligence assessment.”
Intelligence sources told Fox News the new report “was based on information that was known by those involved to be manufactured i.e. the Steele Dossier or deemed as not credible,&#8221; and the CIA had previously dismissed it as filled with &#8220;internet rumor[s].&#8221;
By January 6, 2017, a new Intelligence Community Assessment was released that &#8220;directly contradicted the IC assessments that were made throughout the previous six months,&#8221; the ODNI office told Fox News.
Intelligence officials told Fox News they consider the assessment to have been blatantly &#8220;politicized&#8221; after it &#8220;suppressed intelligence from before and after the election showing Russia lacked intent and capability to hack the 2016 election.&#8221;
&#8220;The information we are releasing today clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government,&#8221; Gabbard told Fox News. &#8220;Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup with the objective of trying to usurp the President from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people.&#8221;
&#8220;No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again,&#8221; Gabbard said. &#8220;The American people’s faith and trust in our democratic republic and therefore the future of our nation depends on it.&#8221;
Gabbard concluded: &#8220;As such, I am providing all documents to the Department of Justice to deliver the accountability that President Trump, his family, and the American people deserve.&#8221;

US-POLITICS-SECURITY-INTELLIGENCE-FBI-OBAMA-COMEY

Obama Admin Suppressed Intel Showing Russia Didn’t Impact 2016 Election, Tulsi Reveals

James Comey

John Brennan

National Intelligence

Russia

Steele Dossier

U.S.

The FBI is reportedly probing former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey over their actions related to the Trump-Russia investigation of the 2016 election.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe made referrals for investigation and potential prosecution of the former top intelligence officials to FBI Director Kash Patel. The bureau has opened criminal investigations into both Brennan and Comey, though the scope of those investigations is unclear, Department of Justice officials told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/john-brennan-james-comey-under-criminal-investigation-doj-sources.amp">Fox News</a>.
Last week, Ratcliffe <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/02/us-news/obamas-trump-russia-collusion-report-was-corrupt-from-start-cia-review/">declassified</a> a “tradecraft review” of the 2016 investigation into Russian election meddling and President Donald Trump. The review determined that the investigation may have been sullied by corruption from the start.
Former President Barack Obama ordered Brennan, Comey, and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to look into Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, and what links, if any, those attempts may have had with the Trump campaign. Obama’s intelligence trio cut corners and froze out most of the rest of the United States intelligence community from the assessment in the atypical investigation, according to the memo.
The after-action report identified “multiple procedural anomalies” such as “a highly compressed production timeline, stringent compartmentation, and excessive involvement of agency heads.” The procedural oddities undermined the integrity and credibility of the CIA, the report said.
Brennan took the lead on the assessment. He overrode the advice of senior officials at the CIA who recommended not including the unsubstantiated Steele Dossier in the final report
“Despite these objections, Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness,” Ratcliffe’s review says. “When confronted with specific flaws in the Dossier by the two mission center leaders — one with extensive operational experience and the other with a strong analytic background — he appeared more swayed by the Dossier&#8217;s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns.”
After the review was completed, its findings motivated Ratcliffe to refer Brennan to the FBI for investigation of potential wrongdoing, according to Fox News.
Brennan “violated the public’s trust and should be held accountable for it,” one official told Fox News without going into detail on what in particular Brennan is being investigated for.

James Comey, John Brennan

Trump DOJ Puts Brennan And Comey Under Investigation For Russiagate: Report

Brennan, Comey Under Criminal Investigation Over 2016 Trump-Russia Probe: Report

John Ratcliffe

WASHINGTON — Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe clarified Wednesday that the CIA has new intelligence indicating &#8220;several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed&#8221; by the recent U.S. strikes.
The CIA published a statement from Ratcliffe late Wednesday afternoon amid legacy media reporting claiming that the United States failed to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, as President Donald Trump has said, and only set it back by months. The New York Times specifically <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/us/politics/trump-nato-iran.html">argued</a> that the report upended the victory Trump had hoped to celebrate at the NATO summit.
Trump’s team has aggressively pushed back on the stories. The president himself said Iran’s nuclear sites were obliterated, Israel has also stated the sites were obliterated, and Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/irans-foreign-ministry-says-nuclear-facilities-badly-damaged-by-us-strikes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, “Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure.”
Ratcliffe&#8217;s statement noted not only that several nuclear facilities were destroyed but also that Iran&#8217;s Nuclear Program has been &#8220;severely damaged.&#8221;
“CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,&#8221; Ratcliffe said in a statement. &#8220;This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_939457" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cia-reveals-intelligence-showing-u-s-destroyed-key-iranian-nuclear-facilities/nato-summit-in-the-hague-final-day-4" rel="attachment wp-att-939457"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-939457" class="wp-image-939457 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2221351945-1-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2221351945-1-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2221351945-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2221351945-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2221351945-1.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>USA Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, USA President Donald Trump and USA Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the press conference at the NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands on June 25, 2025. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)</div>
&#8220;CIA continues to collect additional reliably sourced information to keep appropriate decision-makers and oversight bodies fully informed,&#8221; he added. &#8220;When possible, we will also provide updates and information to the American public, given the national importance of this matter and in every attempt to provide transparency.”
Earlier on Wednesday, DNI Tulsi Gabbard also put out a statement arguing that &#8220;new intelligence&#8221; shows that &#8220;Iran&#8217;s nuclear facilities have been destroyed.&#8221;
&#8220;If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities (Natanz, Fordo, Esfahan) entirely, which would likely take years to do,&#8221; Gabbard said. 
&#8220;The propaganda media has deployed their usual tactic,&#8221; she added: &#8220;selectively release portions of illegally leaked classified intelligence assessments (intentionally leaving out the fact that the assessment was written with &#8216;low confidence&#8217;) to try to undermine President Trump’s decisive leadership and the brave servicemen and women who flawlessly executed a truly historic mission to keep the American people safe and secure.&#8221;

Intelligence Directors Testify At Senate Hearing On Worldwide Threats

CIA Reveals Intelligence Showing U.S. ‘Destroyed’ Key Iranian Nuclear Facilities

Iran

Israel

A former CIA analyst who leaked Israeli strike plans against Iran was sentenced to just three years and one month in prison on Wednesday.
Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, Virginia, was convicted of “unlawfully retaining and transmitting Top Secret National Defense Information to people who were not entitled to receive it,” the U.S. Department of Justice <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-cia-analyst-sentenced-over-three-years-prison-unlawfully-transmitting-top-secret">said</a>. Rahman was arrested in November 2024 and pled guilty to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense in January 2025. He had faced up to 10 years in prison on each count if convicted.
He had been employed by the CIA since 2016 and had Top Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ex-cia-official-admits-to-stealing-leaking-israeli-attack-plans-on-iran">reported</a>.
“Asif Rahman violated his position of trust by illegally accessing, removing, and transmitting Top Secret documents vital to the national security of the United States and its allies,” said Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “This case should serve as a stern warning to those who choose to place their own goals over their allegiance to our nation.”
The DOJ said Rahman “accessed and printed two Top Secret documents containing National Defense Information” on October 17, 2024.
The next day, the documents appeared on multiple social media platforms, including a pro-Iran Telegram account, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cia-official-arrested-for-allegedly-leaking-classified-documents-on-israeli-attack-plans">reported</a> at the time.
The leaked documents included information from U.S. satellites on Israeli military preparations for the strike against Iran. The documents were intended to be viewed only by members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which includes the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Israel launched airstrikes targeting military bases around Iran’s capital city of Tehran later in October, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/israeli-strikes-targeted-iranian-military-bases-around-tehran">reported</a>. The strikes came in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier that month.
The DOJ continued:
<blockquote>In 2024, continuing through November, Rahman repeatedly accessed and printed classified National Defense Information, including documents classified up to the Top Secret and further compartmented levels, that he learned in the course of his employment and transmitted to multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive it.</blockquote>
“For months, this defendant betrayed the American people and the oaths he took upon entering his office by leaking some of our Nation’s most closely held secrets,” said John Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

Israeli fighter jet

Former CIA Analyst Who Leaked Israeli Strike Plans Gets Lenient Prison Sentence

Department of Justice

Military

Prison

Security Guards at the CIA&#8217;s headquarters in McLean, Virginia, shot and wounded a woman on Thursday morning after she failed to stop at the gate, CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woman-shot-cia-headquarters-gate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
The woman was transported to the hospital with what law enforcement officials described as a non-fatal gunshot wound to her upper body. The woman who crashed into the gate was identified as 27-year-old Monia Spadaro, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/security-incident-cia-headquarters-virginia-rcna208468" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC News</a>. In 2021, Spadaro was found guilty of driving under the influence.
“There was a security incident that law enforcement responded to outside CIA Headquarters,” a CIA spokesperson told NBC News. “The main gate is currently closed, employees should seek alternative routes. Additional details will be made available as appropriate.”
The shooting came just hours after two Israeli Embassy staffers were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/israeli-embassy-staff-murdered-by-unidentified-shooter-outside-capitol-jewish-museum?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Kassy+Akiva&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Two+Israeli+Embassy+Staffers+Murdered+By+Keffiyeh-Wearing+Man+Shouting+%E2%80%98Free+Palestine%E2%80%99+In+DC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">murdered</a> by a man shouting &#8220;Free Palestine&#8221; outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night. The CIA headquarters in McLean is just over 12 miles northeast of the Capital Jewish Museum, but there is currently no evidence that the two shootings are related. According to police, the shooting at the CIA headquarters was &#8220;non-fatal,&#8221; NBC 4 Washington <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/person-shot-and-wounded-on-cia-property/3919563/?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_DCBrand" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=memorial&amp;utm_content=editorialmemorialday" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Memorial Day Sale – Get 40% Off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
Fairfax County Police responded to help the CIA with traffic control at around 4:00 a.m. ET following the shooting.
In March, a man was <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/man-arrested-cia-headquarters-shot-at-building-court-documents-affidavit/65-4182cc05-07cc-4c5b-8195-2f846207665d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> following an hours-long standoff at the CIA headquarters. According to court documents, Robert Scofield, 28, fired several shots at a CIA building and then pointed the gun at himself. Scofield, a convicted felon, eventually surrendered after police negotiators arrived on the scene.
This is a developing story; refresh the page for updates.

Woman Shot By Security Guards After Failing To Stop At Gate At CIA Headquarters

Crime

Police

Shooting

Virginia

Washington D.C.

High-ranking U.S. intelligence officials directed agencies to gather information on Greenland last week as part of President Trump&#8217;s determined effort to acquire the mineral-rich Arctic island.
Several high-ranking officials under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued a classified &#8220;collection emphasis message&#8221; to intelligence agency heads last week, instructing them to acquire intel regarding Greenland&#8217;s independence movement and identify people supportive of U.S. objectives, top officials <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/greenland-spying-us-intelligence-809c4ef2?mod=hp_lead_pos1">told</a> The Wall Street Journal.
A &#8220;collection emphasis message&#8221; indicates a high priority objective for intelligence agencies, whose collection resources include surveillance satellites, intercepting electronic communications, and even agents on the ground.
Gabbard gave tacit confirmation of the directive’s existence in a statement admonishing the WSJ, writing: “The Wall Street Journal should be ashamed of aiding deep state actors who seek to undermine the President by politicizing and leaking classified information. They are breaking the law and undermining our nation’s security and democracy.&#8221;
The classified directive, sent to the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, and National Security Agency, marks one of the first tangible moves toward carrying out President Trump&#8217;s desire to acquire the mineral-rich, geopolitically significant territory.
National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt declined to comment on the leaked intelligence, but did state, “The president has been very clear that the U.S. is concerned about the security of Greenland and the Arctic.”
&#8220;We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we&#8217;re working with everybody involved to try and get it,&#8221; President Trump stated during a March joint address to Congress. &#8220;One way or the other, we&#8217;re going to get it.&#8221;
Vice President JD Vance, then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright traveled to Greenland in March, prompting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/greenlanders-are-angry-and-confused-over-unwanted-u-s-visit-87e701c2">complain</a> of &#8220;completely unacceptable pressure on Greenland.&#8221;
The approximately 836,000 square mile territory is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/11/24/781598549/greenland-is-not-for-sale-but-it-has-the-rare-earth-minerals-america-wants">estimated</a> to hold roughly a quarter of the world’s rare-earth minerals necessary for various technologies, along <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/greenland-suspends-oil-exploration-because-of-climate-change">with</a> an estimated 17.5 billion undiscovered barrels of oil and 148 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that could strengthen American energy independence.
The intelligence directive comes as the Arctic has become an increasingly <a href="https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/new-cold-war-china-declares-near-arctic-state/">contested</a> geopolitical arena, with China declaring itself a &#8220;near-Arctic state&#8221; and Russia expanding its military presence in the region.
Moscow has reopened Soviet-era Arctic bases and deployed nuclear-capable missiles to its northern territories, while Beijing has invested billions in Arctic infrastructure projects, including <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-pentagon-countered-chinas-designs-on-greenland-11549812296">attempts</a> to finance airports in Greenland that were ultimately blocked by Denmark with U.S. support.
Danish officials have repeatedly rebuffed Trump&#8217;s interest in acquiring the island, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/denmark-pm-repeats-that-greenland-is-not-sale-2025-02-03/">saying</a> in February: &#8220;Greenland is today a part of the kingdom of Denmark. It is part of our territory, and it&#8217;s not for sale.&#8221;
However, some Greenlandic independence advocates have expressed increasing openness to stronger ties with the United States in recent months.
One resident told the New York Post in March, “I think we need change here in Greenland. We are tired of the Danish colonialism,” <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/27/us-news/trumps-greenlandic-supporters-lean-away-from-denmark-aim-to-build-us-ties-make-greenland-great-again/">said</a> Lars Kleist, a Greenlandic Inuit who said he lost his job in 2020 because of his pro-independence views. “When you enter the town, everything is ruled by the Danish,” who are only 10% of the population.
As such, the intelligence directive specifically instructed agencies to assess Greenland&#8217;s political landscape and identify local leaders who might be receptive to American overtures, according to sources familiar with the order.

Senate Intelligence Cmte Holds Confirmation Hearing For DNI Nominee Tulsi Gabbard

U.S. Intelligence Agencies Directed To Spy On Greenland As Trump Mulls Takeover

Greenland

National Security

National Security Agency (NSA)

Filmmaker Oliver Stone Testifies In House Oversight Hearing On JFK Assassination Files

Facts Over Fiction: A Guide To Debunking Conspiracy Theories

Ben Shapiro

Congress

Conspiracy Theory

Federal Government

House Oversight Committee

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

Oliver Stone

Opinion

CIA Director John Ratcliffe accused the journalist from The Atlantic who wrote a piece about top Trump officials communicating over a Signal chat group that inadvertently included him of lying in his report.
Ratcliffe made the remarks during testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, National Security Agency Director Gen. Timothy Haugh, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse.
&#8220;My responsibility as CIA Director, one of its responsibilities is to kill terrorists, and that&#8217;s exactly what I did along with President Trump&#8217;s excellent national security team,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s what we should be focused on.&#8221;
Ratcliffe said that one of the major issues with the article was how it falsely suggested things that never happened.
&#8220;I spent four hours answering questions from Senators as a result of that article that were intimating that I transmitted classified information because they were hidden messages,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;Those messages were revealed today and revealed that I did not transmit classified information and that the reporter, who I don&#8217;t know, I think intentionally intended it to indicate that.&#8221;
&#8220;That reporter also indicated that I had released the name of an undercover CIA operative in that Signal chat,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;In fact, I had released the name of my chief of staff, who is not operating undercover. That was deliberately false and misleading.&#8221;
Ratcliffe noted that his answers have not changed about what happened, he used an appropriate channel to communicate, and he did not transfer any classified information.
&#8220;At the end of the day, what is most important is that the mission was a remarkable success is what everyone should be focused on here because that&#8217;s what did happen, not what possibly could have happened,&#8221; he said.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/CIADirector?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CIADirector</a>: &quot;My answers haven&#39;t changed. I used an appropriate channel to communicate sensitive information. It was permissible to do so &#8230; and at the end of the day, what is most important is that the mission was a remarkable success.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/Mas5YKrz5a">pic.twitter.com/Mas5YKrz5a</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1904908706426351757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

US-POLITICS-INTELLIGENCE-CONGRESS

CIA Director John Ratcliffe Shreds Atlantic Editor Behind Signal Story: ‘Deliberately False’

The Atlantic

President Kennedy Delivering Speech

What We Learned From The JFK Files

assasination

Cuba

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Matt Walsh

President Trump

SWAT teams were on the scene near the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Wednesday, according to local law enforcement.
The Fairfax County Police Department said that &#8220;Dolley Madison Blvd is shut down in both directions between Georgetown Pk and Savile Ln in McLean for a barricade incident at @CIA HQ.&#8221;
&#8220;Our Special Operations Division is on scene assisting. Please follow police direction,&#8221; the department added.
Around 3:30 EST, police said that the suspect had been taken into custody.
&#8220;The barricade incident has been resolved,&#8221; police said. &#8220;The suspect surrendered to FCPD negotiators and is in custody.&#8221;
Local media <a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/cia-headquarters-threats-police-presence-bomb-squad-team-fairfax-county-police-mclean-safety-public-government-trump-administration">reported</a> that it appeared as though a bomb squad was also present, but it was unclear if that was precautionary or if law enforcement had reason to believe that there was some kind of an explosive threat.
The incident comes after the Trump administration released files on the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday evening, although it was unclear whether the incident was connected to the situation at the CIA headquarters.
This is a breaking news story; refresh the page for updates.

Law Enforcement Responds To Armed Individual At CIA Headquarters

SWAT Team On Scene At CIA Headquarters Over ‘Barricade’ Situation

General

Menu

CIA