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

James Comey

John Brennan

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="(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

Donald Trump

Iran

Israel

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

National security officials are grilled on Capitol Hill amid dueling accusations over a military strike text chain. Big food companies are fighting to keep soda and snacks on the subsidized menu. And, EPA Chief Lee Zeldin is taking swift action to dismantle cumbersome environmental regulations.
It’s Wednesday, March 26th, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/signal-snafu-soda-wars-3-26-25/id1576594336?i=1000700886698" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2>When The Group Chat Leaks…</h2>
<div id="attachment_897845" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-897845" class="size-large wp-image-897845" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Top national security officials were on Capitol Hill yesterday, where lawmakers grilled them on how a journalist was added to a group chat about military operations.
Damage Control… Around two weeks ago, a user named “Michael Waltz” added Atlantic Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group chat where Trump national security officials discussed upcoming strikes on Houthi terrorists. The fallout from that compromised series of communiques, in Washington and in the national press, has been substantial.
Several senior intelligence directors with the Trump administration were already set to testify before the Senate on Tuesday – the hearing naturally became all about the signal chat with Democrats accusing Trump officials of exposing classified information, and the officials defending the administration. CIA Director John Ratcliffe downplayed the severity of the leak in a heated exchange with Senator Jon Ossof (D-GA):
<blockquote>OSSOFF: Director Ratcliffe, this was a huge mistake, correct?
RATCLIFFE: No.
OSSOFF: A national political reporter was made privy to sensitive information about imminent military operations against a foreign terrorist organization, and that wasn’t a huge mistake? This is an embarrassment. This is utterly unprofessional.</blockquote>
Ratcliffe insisted that there was nothing inherently wrong with national security officials discussing military plans on Signal – it was approved under the Biden administration. “One of the first things that happened when I was confirmed as CIA director was Signal was loaded onto my computer at the CIA – as it is for most CIA officers,” Radcliffe testified before Congress. “That is a practice that preceded the current administration to the Biden administration.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, also a member of the chat, told Virginia Senator Mark Warner that “there was no classified material that was shared in that Signal chat.” 
Trump hasn’t said much about the saga yet, but it seems like he’s standing by Waltz and the entire team. The president told NBC yesterday that Waltz “has learned a lesson, and he&#8217;s a good man.&#8221; Trump added that he’s not concerned about the story, saying it is “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”
<h2>Cutting Fat From The Budget</h2>
<div id="attachment_897849" style="width: 795px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-897849" class="size-large wp-image-897849" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-785x576.jpg" alt="" width="785" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-785x576.jpg 785w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-300x220.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-768x563.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-1536x1126.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-2048x1502.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 785px) 100vw, 785px" />(Photo by LauriPatterson by Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Food lobbyists are fighting tooth and nail to stop the Trump administration from limiting taxpayer subsidies for junk food. 
The Trump administration has made a strong push to restrict soda, candy, and other unhealthy options from purchases being made with SNAP, commonly called food stamps. Proponents say this is necessary in light of America’s obesity and overall health crisis, and chiefly, about how taxpayer money is spent. Federally, these changes have been discussed openly by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who plays a key role in administering these benefits.
 There are also numerous bills in the House seeking to restrict junk food and soda from SNAP.
The movement has picked up steam on the state level: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has <a href="https://governor.arkansas.gov/news_post/governor-sanders-calls-for-reforms-to-the-snap-program/">asked</a> the feds to allow her state to restrict SNAP. Lawmakers have made similar moves in Idaho, Kansas, Arizona, Indiana, Texas, and Wyoming, to name a few. In related news, West Virginia has just passed a bill that bans a number of food dyes often found in junk food and sugary drinks – that will affect the soda industry, too, which ran a <a href="https://www.medpagetoday.com/primarycare/dietnutrition/114739">strong opposition campaign</a> to that bill. Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed that bill on Monday; it will go into effect in 2028, though it will affect school food programs this summer. 
The food industry is working across numerous fronts to protect the profits of these products. About 1 in 8 Americans receive SNAP benefits currently, with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-heart-association-retracts-food-stamp-soda-opposition">soda</a> as the most frequently purchased item. About 10% of all SNAP spending goes toward soda and sugary drinks, and another 10% toward junk food. American taxpayers reportedly subsidize roughly <a href="https://www.ibtimes.com/soft-drinks-snap-benefits-congress-3756667?utm_source=chatgpt.com">$4 billion</a> worth of soda products through SNAP.
Buttering Trump Up: The American Beverage Association, or ABA, which represents all of those big soda companies, gave <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/rfk-jr-soda-snap-food-stamps-coke-pepsi-9bd9a872">money</a> to Trump’s inauguration, as they have for past presidents. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Keurig Dr Pepper have directly engaged with administration officials – talking up their commitment to “zero-sugar” options and clear product labeling. Coca-Cola also famously met with Trump in January to gift him a personalized bottle of Diet Coke. 
Walmart has also engaged in lobbying efforts to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-heart-association-retracts-food-stamp-soda-opposition">stop</a> these restrictions, and, believe it or not, there was also a lobbyist from the American Heart Association (AHA) who advocated against these restrictions. As was first reported by The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-heart-association-retracts-food-stamp-soda-opposition">AHA</a> has since claimed that the lobbyist &#8220;miscommunicated&#8221; the group&#8217;s position. 
A poll commissioned by the ABA found that <a href="https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/health/republicans-divided-over-banning-purchase-soft-drinks-food-stamps?utm_source=chatgpt.com">58</a>% of 2024 Trump voters believe food stamps should be allowed to purchase soda. Overall, 64% of those polled agreed. But, again, this was conducted on behalf of the ABA, and it only polled about 800 people. It’s also noteworthy that a significant number of Americans who voted for Trump receive SNAP benefits – likely tens of millions of Americans. 
Trump himself has not said anything for or against restricting soda and other junk food from SNAP, though he has empowered RFK to enact his “MAHA” agenda.
<h2>EPA Cuts Spending and Regulation</h2>
<div id="attachment_897851" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-897851" class="size-large wp-image-897851" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: The second Trump administration could oversee one of the largest shifts in environmental policy in over a decade. EPA chief Lee Zeldin is leading the transition with an aggressive effort to cut extensive climate regulations.
The Trump administration, and Zeldin in particular, are aggressively attacking Democratic climate policies and green programs. It’s all part of President Trump’s stated goal of energy dominance.
“I am here to fight for part of that Trump mandate earned [on] November 5th,” Zeldin <a href="https://x.com/epaleezeldin/status/1899998341829730445">told</a> Fox&#8217;s Laura Ingram earlier this month. “[There are] people who cannot afford to be able to heat their home, to purchase a car, small businesses that are struggling to operate. People have been put out of work, and it&#8217;s going to end.”
Zeldin wants to reform and repeal dozens of the most burdensome climate rules. That includes, for example, Biden’s electric vehicle mandate that aims to force a radical change to the automobile market with half of new cars sold being all electric by 2032. Zeldin’s EPA has also set its sights on Obama’s 2009 endangerment finding – that rule essentially set the basis for the EPA to police greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and spawned a massive amount of environmental regulation.
Zeldin has also cut and reclaimed funds from climate programs. In a cabinet meeting on Monday, he said that the EPA had cut “over $22 billion worth of contracts,” which had previously been going to.
Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright has worked alongside the EPA to greenlight a lot of oil and gas projects. And Wright has also been cutting regulations on energy producers – so much so that oil and gas executives are reneging on green investment pledges and pausing the transition to green energy that Democrats have wanted.
 There was also a major court case punishing Greenpeace for its extreme protest strategies. Last week, it was found liable in a nearly $700 million judgment for helping violent protesters destroy and vandalize property in their attempts to sabotage the Dakota Access Pipeline. The trial revealed that Greenpeace USA organizers had trained protesters and even purchased supplies the protesters used to commit illegal acts.

Morning Brief: Signal Chat Fallout, Cutting Soda From SNAP, & EPA Deregulation

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Lee Zeldin

Morning Wire

Trump Administration

Tulsi Gabbard

Top intelligence officials from the Trump administration strongly pushed back Tuesday on claims that classified material was shared in a Signal chat group about America&#8217;s attack plans on Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
The comments were made during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing less than 24 hours after The Atlantic&#8217;s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a story about the Signal chat group after he was accidentally included in the group and was able to monitor communications between officials.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the encrypted app was loaded onto his computer by technicians at the agency after he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
&#8220;One of the things that I was briefed on very early was by the CIA records management folks about the use of Signal as a permissible work use — it is,&#8221; Ratcliffe told Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA). &#8220;That is a practice that preceded the current administration to the Biden administration.&#8221;
He said that his communications in the group were &#8220;entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.&#8221;
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard subsequently told Warner that &#8220;there was no classified material that was shared in that Signal chat.&#8221;
The questions came after other top Trump officials — including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and others — were discussing timing and messaging for U.S. military strikes in Yemen against the terrorist group. The White House confirmed the authenticity of the group chat, saying in a statement that it is “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
While the Trump administration confirmed that the group chat highlighted in The Atlantic’s story was genuine, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed Goldberg’s “sensationalist spin.” She <a href="https://x.com/PressSec/status/1904512527699968437">wrote on X</a> that “No ‘war plans’ were discussed” on the Signal group chat and “No classified material was sent to the thread.”
“The White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible,” Leavitt added. “As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread. Thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of President Trump, and everyone in the group, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective. Terrorists were killed and that’s what matters most to President Trump.”

Gabbard, Ratcliffe: No Classified Information Was Shared In Signal Chat

Houthis

Politics

Scandals

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedly offered buyouts to its entire workforce on Tuesday in an effort to restructure the agency and confront the top threats facing the U.S.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/the-cia-is-about-to-get-a-trump-makeover-16fc0cbf">reported</a> that employees were offered eight months of pay and benefits if they quit their jobs, but overall interest among those who work at the CIA appeared to be low.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe&#8217;s officer said that the agency was also temporarily freezing the hiring of applicants who had been given conditional offers.
The report added that President Donald Trump&#8217;s top goals for the agency revolved around trade wars, undermining communist China, and destroying the Mexican drug cartels.
The offers were essentially a signal to those working in the U.S. government that if they oppose Trump, they should leave the agency and work elsewhere.
Ratcliffe reportedly urged the White House to make the offers to the CIA because he believes it is a necessary first step for creating &#8220;a more aggressive spy agency.&#8221;
In his confirmation hearing last month before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ratcliffe said that the U.S.&#8217;s current threat environment was &#8220;the most challenging&#8221; in history.
&#8220;The Chinese Communist Party remains committed to dominating the world economically, technologically, and militarily,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;Transnational criminal organizations are flooding American communities with violence and deadly narcotics.&#8221;
&#8220;The Russia-Ukraine War wages on, spreading devastation and increasing the risk of the United States being pulled into conflict with a nuclear power,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies continue to export mayhem across the Middle East, and Iran is closer to nuclear breakout than ever before.&#8221;
&#8220;North Korea remains a destabilizing force,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Increasing coordination among America’s rivals and adversaries threatens to compound the threats they each pose individually. And numerous terrorist groups and other non-state actors – some of which have even crossed our southern border – still pose a persistent threat to our people and our homeland.&#8221;
<iframe loading="lazy" title="John Ratcliffe Tells CIA Officers To ‘Buckle Up’ Or Get Out: ‘We Must Be The Ultimate Meritocracy’" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SO8u-0fTRp0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

John Ratcliffe faces Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing

CIA Offers Buyouts In Effort To Reshape Agency To Confront Top Threats

Deep State

General

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said during an interview over the weekend that the world&#8217;s leading intelligence agency was now investigating whether the COVID-19 pandemic was an accident or if it was intentional.
Ratcliffe made the remarks during a Sunday interview on &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221; while discussing his decision to release the findings from a new assessment that was conducted the Biden administration that concluded that the pandemic originated from a lab in Wuhan.
Ratcliffe said that the reason that he released the intelligence was because it was important for Americans to regain trust in government institutions.
&#8220;I had the opportunity on my first day to make public an assessment that actually took place in the Biden administration,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;So it can&#8217;t be accused of being political, and it does assess, the CIA has assessed that the most likely cause of this pandemic that has wrought so much devastation around the world was because of a lab related incident in Wuhan, and so we&#8217;ll continue to investigate that moving forward.&#8221;
When asked by host Maria Bartiromo if the CIA has concluded whether or not the lab leak was &#8220;intentional or accidental,&#8221; Ratcliffe responded: &#8220;I&#8217;m going to look closely at the intelligence that we&#8217;ve gathered.&#8221;
&#8220;I think we&#8217;ll get to the point where every intelligence agency in the United States will agree with the CIA&#8217;s assessment that the most likely outcome was from from a lab in Wuhan,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And we&#8217;ll get more intelligence as time goes by, and we&#8217;ll be transparent with the American people about what that intelligence says.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Trump&#8217;s CIA Director John Ratcliffe says that the agency is evaluating intel it has on COVID origins to determine whether China intentionally started it or if it was an accident. <a href="https://t.co/oQTSykPJI4">pic.twitter.com/oQTSykPJI4</a>
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1883565203633352962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2025</a></blockquote>

CIA Director Ratcliffe: Agency Now Evaluating If China Intentionally Started Pandemic

Communist China

COVID-19

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CIA</a> said on Saturday that it now assesses that a lab leak from communist China was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic that upended the world several years ago.
The announcement came after CIA Director John Ratcliffe was overwhelmingly confirmed by the U.S. Senate this week.
&#8220;CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a neutral origin based on the available body of reporting,&#8221; the agency said in a statement. &#8220;CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.&#8221;
&#8220;We have low confidence in this judgement and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA&#8217;s assessment,&#8221; the statement added.
The New York Times reported that the decision to reassess the origins of the pandemic came after the Biden administration &#8220;ordered a new classified review of the pandemic’s origin&#8221; during the administration&#8217;s final weeks in office.
Ratcliffe simply declassified and released the results of the assessment, thus dispelling insinuations that he politicized intelligence.
The report said that the new analysis comes after the agency took a closer look at the conditions inside high security labs in Wuhan before the outbreak.
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The Wall Street Journal reported late last year that the Biden administration suppressed information from U.S. intelligence agencies that indicated a lab leak in communist China was the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FBI was the only government agency that assessed that a lab leak was the likely source of the pandemic, and had “moderate confidence” in their evaluation. Four other government departments said they believed the pandemic had a zoonotic origin — meaning that it came from animals — but they said they had “low confidence” in their assessment, according to The Wall Street Journal.
When National Intelligence Director Avril Haines briefed Biden in August 2021, three months after Biden ordered a 90-day review to determine where the pandemic came from, the FBI was not asked to attend the meeting.
Jason Bannan, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology, joined the FBI after the 9/11 attacks to bolster its expertise in matters related to biological weapons, chemical weapons, and more.
“Being the only agency that assessed that a laboratory origin was more likely, and the agency that expressed the highest level of confidence in its analysis of the source of the pandemic, we anticipated the FBI would be asked to attend the briefing,” Bannan told The Wall Street Journal. “I find it surprising that the White House didn’t ask.”
The Wall Street Journal investigation found that officials in the Biden administration sought to keep certain information from becoming public about the lab leak theory, and that the FBI was not the only agency that thought the pandemic originated in a Chinese lab.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-suppressed-info-from-intel-agencies-that-blamed-lab-leak-for-covid-19-pandemic?fbclid=IwY2xjawICJ79leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfYqpb8faFYISrCbu8EPdkibKpSIvH9IJKNtMSzQ7kh1Z9dtv9ZIErsn7w_aem_wqZibq2ln1O3VS02dDEVqA">Biden Admin Suppressed Info From Intel Agencies That Blamed ‘Lab Leak’ For COVID-19 Pandemic</a>

CIA Assesses Chinese Lab Leak Responsible For Coronavirus Pandemic

COVID

World

On Thursday, the GOP-led <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-senate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate</a> confirmed the nomination of <a href="https://x.com/CraigCaplan/status/1881476717325558114" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Ratcliffe</a> to become <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CIA</a> director in President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>&#8216;s second term.
The final tally was <a href="https://x.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1882509868520927345" target="_blank" rel="noopener">74-25</a>, with many Democrats joining with Republicans in voting for Ratcliffe, who is the second Trump Cabinet nominee to be confirmed after Secretary of State Marco Rubio was approved unanimously earlier this week. A simple majority was needed for confirmation.
Ratcliffe is a former House Republican from Texas who served as director of national intelligence at the end of the first Trump administration.
During his confirmation hearing last week, Ratcliffe testified that he demonstrated his &#8220;record in terms of speaking truth to power and defending the intelligence community and its good work&#8221; when he stood firm against efforts to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story.
&#8220;In 2020, when a chairman of an intelligence committee misrepresented that a laptop owned by then-candidate [Joe] Biden&#8217;s son was somehow a Russian intelligence operation and 51 former intelligence officials used the imprimatur of IC authority to go along with that, I stood in the breach. I stood alone and told the American people the truth about that,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
CIA Director Nominee <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnRatcliffe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JohnRatcliffe</a>: &#8220;In 2020, when a chairman of an intelligence committee misrepresented that a laptop owned by then candidate Biden&#8217;s son was somehow a Russian intelligence operation&#8230; I stood in the breach. I stood alone and told the American people the truth… <a href="https://t.co/5d75IK13BG">pic.twitter.com/5d75IK13BG</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1879559506243285015?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Senate Intelligence Committee advanced Ratcliffe&#8217;s nomination by a 14-3 vote with bipartisan support. However, earlier this week, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-republicans-erupt-over-dem-stalling-of-trump-nominees" target="_blank" rel="noopener">objected</a> to a so-called <a href="https://x.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1881841277626671515" target="_blank" rel="noopener">time agreement</a> that would have allowed a final confirmation vote to have taken place on Tuesday.
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Murphy <a href="https://www.c-span.org/event/us-senate/us-senate/430291" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he wanted a &#8220;full&#8221; debate that lasted a couple of more days while insisting that some members had &#8220;serious concerns&#8221; that the CIA pick would not be able to &#8220;distance himself from the political interests of President Trump.&#8221; Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) rejected Murphy&#8217;s claim about Democrats needing more time and surmised that &#8220;what this is really about is trying to drag out all of these nominations to play procedural games, as we&#8217;re about to, with Pete Hegseth&#8217;s nomination to try to deny President Trump his Cabinet in a prompt and timely fashion.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
My message to obstructionist Democrats:
Don’t make plans this weekend. We’re going to get President Trump’s nominees confirmed the easy collegial way, or apparently the hard way. <a href="https://t.co/DJrA09bTqk">pic.twitter.com/DJrA09bTqk</a>
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1881851088980279482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
The Senate could hold a confirmation vote on Hegseth, who is the nominee to become defense secretary, as early as Friday after GOP leadership took procedural steps to set it up in the face of Democrat resistance to speed up consideration of Trump&#8217;s Cabinet picks. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who is Trump&#8217;s nominee to become Secretary of Homeland Security, may be next with a <a href="https://x.com/DISivak/status/1882201777631805941" target="_blank" rel="noopener">final vote</a> over the weekend.
&nbsp;
Senate Majority Leader <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-thune" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Thune</a> (R-SD) <a href="https://x.com/LeaderJohnThune/status/1881880780319944809" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> Democrats against slowing down efforts to confirm Trump&#8217;s nominees, saying on X: &#8220;As I’ve repeatedly said, Senate Republicans are ready to work as long as needed to confirm President Trump’s nominees. Nights. Weekends. Recesses.&#8221;
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Senate Confirms John Ratcliffe As Trump’s CIA Director

Cabinet

National Security

Presidential nomination

U.S. Senate

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) warned Senate Democrats on Tuesday night that Senate Republicans will confirm President Donald Trump&#8217;s nominees to their chosen roles, with or without their help.
Cotton made the remarks during a speech on the Senate floor after Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) blocked a vote to confirm former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to become the next director of the CIA.
&#8220;I don’t really understand the objection to Mr. Ratcliffe,&#8221; Cotton said. &#8220;He was confirmed by the Senate to be the director of National Intelligence. He was fully vetted through the bipartisan process on the Senate Intelligence Committee. We voted him out yesterday, on a 14 to 3 vote. Senator Schumer stood here yesterday and talked about how we’re going to cooperate on highly qualified capable nominees with integrity, which John Ratcliffe is.&#8221;
Cotton noted that the intentional delay meant that on Tuesday, only Secretary of State Marco Rubio was confirmed to his role, and there would be no more votes on Wednesday.
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&#8220;I hope nobody’s making any plans for the weekend or the evenings cause we’re going to get these nominees confirmed,&#8221; Cotton said. &#8220;Starting with Mr. Ratcliffe and then moving on to Mr. Hegseth and moving on to [Mrs.] Noem. The easy way or the hard way. We tried to cooperate with the Democrats. The cooperation has not been forthcoming, so I guess it’s going to be the hard way. Starting on Thursday.&#8221;
Cotton said that Democrats were &#8220;trying to drag out all of these nominations to play procedural games, as we’re about to with Pete Hegseth’s nomination, to try to deny President Trump his cabinet in a prompt and timely fashion, just like the Democrats did in 2017.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Tom Cotton Issues Warning To Democrats After They Block Vote On CIA Director Nominee John Ratcliffe" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jo7GiFo1Ivk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Donald Trump Meets With Republican Senators At The NRSC

‘The Easy Way Or The Hard Way’: Tom Cotton Warns Dems About Delaying Confirming Trump Nominees

Congress

Tom Cotton

Leading <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-senate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate</a> Republicans have been delivering fiery rebukes as their Democrat colleagues slowed down the process of confirming President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>&#8216;s Cabinet nominees for his nascent second term in the White House.
After Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) objected to a so-called <a href="https://x.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1881841277626671515" target="_blank" rel="noopener">time agreement</a> that would have allowed a final vote on <a href="https://x.com/CraigCaplan/status/1881476717325558114" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Ratcliffe</a>&#8216;s nomination to become CIA director on Tuesday, Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) voiced his dismay in <a href="https://www.c-span.org/event/us-senate/us-senate/430291" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarks</a> on the Senate floor while stressing that the upper chamber would press ahead with Trump&#8217;s picks.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve now wasted a whole day where we could have been acting on that nomination,&#8221; Thune said, adding that the question before the Senate was &#8220;do we want a vote on these folks on Tuesday or vote on them on Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Because that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re going to do. This can be easy or this can be hard.&#8221;
Thune highlighted that Ratcliffe, a former House Republican from Texas who served as director of national intelligence at the end of Trump&#8217;s first term, sailed through the Senate Intelligence Committee by a 14-3 vote with bipartisan support.
&#8220;This is about America&#8217;s national security interests. And we&#8217;re stalling,&#8221; Thune continued. &#8220;So that&#8217;s not going to happen. We&#8217;re going to file cloture on them. You can force us to stay here, staying around here. And we can vote on these things Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But we&#8217;re going to vote on them.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
As I’ve repeatedly said, Senate Republicans are ready to work as long as needed to confirm President Trump’s nominees. Nights. Weekends. Recesses. <a href="https://t.co/yLl2hIo0pc">pic.twitter.com/yLl2hIo0pc</a>
&mdash; Leader John Thune (@LeaderJohnThune) <a href="https://twitter.com/LeaderJohnThune/status/1881880780319944809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Thune also took procedural steps that will pave the way to final confirmation votes in the coming days for Ratcliffe&#8217;s nomination, as well as South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem&#8217;s nomination to become Homeland Security secretary and Pete Hegseth&#8217;s nomination to become Defense secretary — both of whom have advanced out of committee, too.
With a post to X featuring a video of his remarks, Thune suggested there could even be recess appointments. Trump has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-how-recess-appointments-work-and-how-they-could-help-trump-fill-his-cabinet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">advocated</a> for installing his own nominees in such a manner, during a recess, if the Senate fails to confirm them in a &#8220;timely manner.&#8221;
In rejecting the Senate Republicans&#8217; bid to proceed more swiftly with a confirmation vote on Ratcliffe&#8217;s nomination, Murphy <a href="https://www.c-span.org/event/us-senate/us-senate/430291" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he wanted a &#8220;full&#8221; debate that lasted a couple more days while insisting that some members had &#8220;serious concerns&#8221; that the CIA pick would not be able to &#8220;distance himself from the political interests of President Trump.&#8221;
But Senate Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) wasn&#8217;t buying it. He rejected Murphy&#8217;s claim about Democrats needing more time to discuss Ratcliffe&#8217;s nomination and surmised that &#8220;what this is really about is trying to drag out all of these nominations to play procedural games, as we&#8217;re about to, with Pete Hegseth&#8217;s nomination to try to deny President Trump his Cabinet in a prompt and timely fashion.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
My message to obstructionist Democrats:
Don’t make plans this weekend. We’re going to get President Trump’s nominees confirmed the easy collegial way, or apparently the hard way. <a href="https://t.co/DJrA09bTqk">pic.twitter.com/DJrA09bTqk</a>
&mdash; Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1881851088980279482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
So far, the GOP-led Senate has approved just one of Trump&#8217;s Cabinet nominees: now-former senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, who on Tuesday was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/marco-rubio-sworn-in-says-war-in-ukraine-must-end" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sworn in</a> to office as U.S. Secretary of State after being confirmed by a unanimous vote on Monday.
While some delays may be <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/confirmation-delays-stack-up-trump-nominees-paperwork-lags-federal-offices" target="_blank" rel="noopener">due to paperwork</a>, the Senate Judiciary Committee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-democrats-put-arbitrary-hold-on-pam-bondi-nomination" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that Democrats pushed back a meeting to vote on advancing the nomination of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pam-bondi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pam Bondi</a> to become U.S. attorney general by a week with a hold allowed under the rules.

John Thune

Senate Republicans Erupt Over Dem ‘Stalling’ Of Trump Nominees

Chris Murphy

Kristi Noem

Pam Bondi

Pete Hegseth

Senate Democrats

President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> announced on Tuesday that he is selecting John Ratcliffe, the former Director of National Intelligence, to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.
Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113472422495973695" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement that Ratcliffe &#8220;will be a fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans, while ensuring the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.&#8221; Ratcliffe, a former congressman representing Texas&#8217; 4th District, was awarded the National Security Medal by Trump in 2020 after he spoke out against the FBI and Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation into the spurious claims of Trump’s ties to Russia.
Shortly before the 2020 election, Ratcliffe declassified information about the 2016 election that suggested Hillary Clinton’s campaign approved a plan to “stir up a scandal” against Trump that tied him to the Russians.
&#8220;From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBI&#8217;s abuse of Civil Liberties at the FISA Court, John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American Public,&#8221; Trump added.
Before his time in Congress, Ratcliffe served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. He was a congressman for five years before he was tapped by Trump to become the Director of National Intelligence in 2020. Ratcliffe was also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-the-names-being-floated-for-trumps-ag-pick" target="_blank" rel="noopener">floated</a> as a potential pick for Trump&#8217;s attorney general.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w">MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a>
The new Trump administration is quickly taking shape as the president named people for multiple positions this week, including former Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-will-restore-american-energy-dominance-trump-taps-lee-zeldin-to-lead-epa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lee Zeldin</a> (R-NY) to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/stefanik-aims-to-restore-america-first-peace-through-strength-as-trumps-u-n-ambassador" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elise Stefanik</a> (R-NY) as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and former Arkansas Republican Gov. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mike-huckabee-nominated-for-u-s-ambassador-to-israel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Huckabee</a> as the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Trump Names Next CIA Director

Executive

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