Ratcliffe shares Russian allegation that Clinton 'stirred up' Trump-Russia scandal, admits it could be 'fabricated'

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe just shared the opposite of intelligence with the Senate Judiciary Committee.In a Tuesday letter, Ratcliffe let Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) know he'd declassified some Russian intelligence alleging Hillary Clinton may have launched President Trump's Russia scandal. Not that Ratcliffe, a Trump appointee who has defended the president on Russia before, had any idea if the allegation was true or not.In July 2016, U.S. intelligence picked up Russian intelligence alleging the Democratic presidential nominee "had approved a plan to stir up a scandal against" Trump by "tying him to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Russian's hacking of the Democratic National Committee." Former CIA Director John Brennan apparently briefed then-President Barack Obama on the intelligence. But Ratcliffe noted the intelligence community "does not know the accuracy of this allegation," or if it contains "exaggeration or fabrication" -- probably a reason it wasn't shared earlier.> Ratcliffe just declassified to Graham a claim that Russian intel alleged that Clinton "approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against [Trump] by tying him to Putin and the Russians' hacking of the DNC."> > ...but says "the IC does not know the accuracy of this allegation." pic.twitter.com/tpqGmhXUMY> > -- Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) September 29, 2020Meanwhile, Ratcliffe has declined to release the U.S. intelligence community's annual global threat assessment -- something Trump's former anti-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk said is more important than "sketchy Russia intel chatter." > Put another way: the DNI thinks the American people should be aware of sketchy Russian intel chatter while keeping from the American people the considered USG intelligence assessment on current threats to our country--including from Russia.> > -- Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) September 29, 2020More stories from theweek.com 'Sully' Sullenberger savages Trump's 'lethal lies and incompetence' in new Lincoln Project ad Disney will lay off 28,000 theme park employees after months of coronavirus furloughs Trump reportedly made tens of millions in the Great Recession by partnering with multilevel marketing companies

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