US officials say former CIA director Brennan doctored 2016 intelligence to advance Trump-Russia “collusion” narrative
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – After learning that career analysts disputed there was Trump-Russia “collusion” in the run-up to the 2016 election, CIA Director John Brennan personally edited the intelligence report on Russian interference in the election in order to continue justifying the ongoing “collusion” probe, RealClearInvestigations (RCI) reported Thursday.
The RCI report by Paul Sperry is based on statements by two senior US intelligence officials who have seen classified materials about Brennan’s role in writing the intelligence document. Brennan had publicly supported Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election campaign.
Sperry reports that the Obama administration released a declassified version of the collusion report, titled “Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent Elections (ICA),” two weeks before Trump took office. The ICA is now being investigated by US Attorney John Durham as part of his review of the original collusion probe: “[Durham] wants to know if the intelligence findings were juiced for political purposes,” Sperry writes.
RealClearInvestigations has also discovered that CIA operative Andrea Kendall-Taylor, who assisted Brennan in writing the ICA, had financially supported Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election campaign, Sperry adds. Kendall-Taylor is also a close colleague of Eric Ciaramella, whom RCI identified last year as the Democratic national security “whistleblower” whose report led to the Trump’s impeachment, Sperry reports.
According to the two senior officials, Brennan left out of the ICA evidence about Putin’s motives that would conflict with the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, Sperry reports. Brennan had done this “despite objections from some intelligence analysts who argued Putin counted on Clinton winning the election and viewed Trump as a ‘wild card,’ Sperry writes. In drafting the ICA, Brennan also set aside the evidence of dissenting analysts who said Putin actually favored a Clinton win because he believed she would work with Russia. Trump, on the other hand, was believed to be too unpredictable for Putin’s liking.
Moreover, the dissenting analysts had noted, Russia tried to meddle in both the 2008 and the 2012 election campaigns, long before the arrival of Trump on the scene.
If you are interested in articles produced by Worthy News, please check out our FREE sydication service available to churches or online Christian ministries. To find out more, visit Worthy Plugins.