The House Intelligence Committee found that the intelligence community had no direct evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed to help elect Donald Trump in the 2016 election, but at the “unusual” direction of then-President Barack Obama, the agencies released intelligence that was “potentially biased” or “implausible,” suggesting otherwise.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified a previously unreleased 2020 report prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The report, dated September 18, 2020, stemmed from an investigation initiated by then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chaired the committee at the time of the report’s release.
Fox News was the first to report on the new bombshell revelations regarding Obama. The report had remained highly classified within the intelligence community and had never been made public until now, the outlet said.
Fox News Digital obtained the “fully-sourced limited-access investigation report that was drafted and stored in a limited-access vault at CIA Headquarters.” The report includes some redactions, the outlet added.
The committee’s investigation centered on the development of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, highlighting how then-CIA Director John Brennan advocated for including the now-discredited anti-Trump dossier—despite being aware it was largely based on “internet rumor,” according to prior reporting by Fox News.
According to the report, the ICA was a “high-profile product ordered by the President, directed by senior IC agency heads, and created by just five CIA analysts, using one principal drafter.”
“Production of the ICA was subject to unusual directives from the President and senior political appointees, and particularly DCIA,” the report states. “The draft was not properly coordinated within CIA or the IC, ensuring it would be published without significant challenges to its conclusions.”
The committee found that the five CIA analysts and drafter “rushed” the ICA’s production “in order to publish two weeks before President-elect Trump was sworn-in.”
“Hurried coordination and limited access to the draft reduced opportunities for the IC to discover misquoting of sources and other tradecraft concerns,” the report states, per Fox.
The report states that Brennan “ordered the post-election publication of 15 reports containing previously collected but unpublished intelligence, three of which were substandard—containing information that was unclear, of uncertain origin, potentially biased, or implausible—and those became foundational sources for the ICA judgements that Putin preferred Trump over Clinton.”
“The ICA misrepresented these reports as reliable, without mentioning their significant underlying flaws,” the committee found.
“One scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports constitutes the only classified information cited to suggest Putin ‘aspired’ to help Trump win,” the report states, going on to say that the ICA “ignored or selectively quoted reliable intelligence reports that challenged-and in some cases undermined—judgments that Putin sought to elect Trump.”
The report also says that the ICA “failed to consider plausible alternative explanations of Putin’s intentions indicated by reliable intelligence and observed Russian actions.”
In addition, the committee said that a pair of senior CIA officers warned Brennan that “we don’t have direct information that Putin wanted to get Trump elected.”
However, despite the warnings, the Obama regime moved to publish the ICA anyway. The ICA “did not cite any report where Putin directly indicated helping Trump win was the objective.”
Fox added:
The ICA, according to the report, excluded “significant intelligence” and “ignored or selectively quoted” reliable intelligence in an effort to push the Russia narrative.
The report also includes intelligence from a longtime Putin confidant who explained to investigators that “Putin told him he did not care who won the election,” and that Putin “had often outlined the weaknesses of both major candidates.”
The report also states that the ICA committed context showing that the claim that Putin preferred Trump was “implausible—if not ridiculous.”
The committee also determined that the Intelligence Community Assessment downplayed intelligence indicating that Russia was actually preparing for a Hillary Clinton victory, believing they “knew where she stood” and that they “could work with her.”