The administration of US President Donald Trump’s top intelligence official on Tuesday said that he has declassified Russian intelligence alleging damaging information about Democrats during the 2016 US presidential election.
The announcement drew harsh criticism from lawmakers who accused US National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe of politicizing intelligence.
In a letter to US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, Ratcliffe said that in late July 2016, US intelligence agencies obtained “insight” into Russian spycraft alleging that former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was running for US president, had “approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against” Trump.
Photo: AFP
However, Ratcliffe added that US intelligence agencies do “not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.”
The announcement was a startling break from convention given that the US’ intelligence chiefs are generally loath to publicly discuss sensitive government intelligence, particularly when that information is unconfirmed — as Ratcliffe himself admits is the case here.
However, Trump has been eager to install loyalists in the role of intelligence director, and Ratcliffe and his predecessor, Richard Grenell, have authorized a series of disclosures in the past few months aimed at undermining the Russia investigation and providing a political advantage to Trump.
Graham on Tuesday signaled that he intended to ask former FBI director James Comey about the issue when Comey testifies before the committee, which has been conducting its own inquiry into the origins of the Russia probe.
US Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Ratcliffe’s decision “disturbing,” especially this close to a presidential election.
US Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat and a member of the intelligence committee, accused Ratcliffe of abusing his position as the nation’s top spy.
“His politicization of intelligence, including through selective releases to political allies, damages the country and undermines the intelligence community he purports to lead,” Wyden said in a statement. “Ratcliffe is even willing to rely on unverified Russian information to try to concoct a political scandal — a shocking abdication of his responsibilities to the country.”
Wyden said the information being released amounted to “rumint” or intelligence based on rumors.
Ratcliffe responded with a second statement claiming the intelligence was not Russian disinformation.
He said that he would be briefing the US Congress in coming days about the “sensitive sources and methods by which it was obtained.”
Ratcliffe said that he was providing the intelligence to the judiciary committee related to the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation in 2016 and 2017 into links between Trump associates and Russian officials.
Comey was to testify to the judiciary committee yesterday.
In his letter, Ratcliffe said that according to handwritten notes by former CIA director John Brennan, Brennan briefed then-US president Barack Obama and other senior national security officials on the intelligence, including the “alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016, of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services.”
Nick Shapiro, former CIA deputy chief of staff to Brennan, said that Russian interference in the 2016 election was “real, intense and unprecedented in scale and scope.”
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS