A newly released CIA review reveals that top Obama administration intelligence officials deliberately corrupted the 2016 intelligence assessment on Russian election interference through unprecedented manipulation and rushed procedures designed to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency.
“All the world can now see the truth,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said of the report on X.
The internal CIA review found that then-CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper orchestrated an “atypical” and “markedly unconventional” process that raised serious questions about political motives behind the intelligence community assessment.
Career professionals at the CIA’s Directorate of Analysis conducted the review after Ratcliffe commissioned the investigation in May.
The assessment examined the Intelligence Community Assessment that concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin “aspired” to help Trump win the 2016 election.
Barack Obama ordered the assessment on December 6, 2016, just six weeks before his presidency ended.
The rushed timeline and unusual procedures employed by intelligence leaders violated standard protocols and compromised analytical integrity, according to the review.
The investigation identified “multiple procedural anomalies” that undermined the credibility of the original assessment.
These included a “highly compressed production timeline, stringent compartmentation, and excessive involvement of agency heads” that departed from