A bombshell new report from the CIA has rocked Washington's intelligence community, revealing troubling details about how the Obama administration's assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election was deliberately corrupted by top intelligence officials.
According to the New York Post, a CIA tradecraft review found that former CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper rushed and manipulated the process to reach predetermined conclusions about Russian interference and Trump's campaign.
The review, commissioned by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, uncovered multiple irregularities in how the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) was produced, including an extremely compressed timeline, exclusion of key intelligence agencies, and unprecedented direct involvement of agency heads that "compromised analytic rigor."
The investigation revealed that Brennan hand-selected CIA analysts and deliberately sidelined the National Intelligence Council, breaking with standard procedures. Rather than following typical months-long assessment protocols, the ICA was rushed through in just one week.
The compressed timeline meant many intelligence stakeholders felt "jammed" and were unable to properly review materials. Most participants only saw draft documents just before or during a single coordination meeting held on December 19.
Senior intelligence officials operated under strict compartmentalization rules that required hard copies to be hand-carried between buildings, further complicating the review process.
Brennan insisted on including the now-discredited Steele dossier despite strong objections from the CIA's top Russia experts. The Deputy Director for Analysis explicitly warned that including the dossier would risk "the credibility of the entire paper."
The FBI leadership made their participation contingent on including the dossier's claims. Brennan overruled career professionals who argued the dossier failed to meet basic intelligence standards.
Multiple senior CIA Russia analysts opposed incorporating the dossier, warning it would needlessly politicize the assessment. Their concerns were ignored as agency heads pushed to weave dossier references throughout the report.
The review found that Obama ordered the assessment on December 6, 2016, demanding it be completed before the presidential transition. This artificial deadline raised serious questions about potential political motives.
Media leaks suggesting predetermined conclusions about Russian interference emerged before analysts even began their work. This likely created "anchoring bias" that influenced the assessment process.
The CIA review concluded that key judgments, particularly claims that Putin specifically aimed to help Trump win, were weakly supported by evidence and potentially shaped more by political pressure than sound analysis.
In an exclusive interview, CIA Director Ratcliffe said career intelligence professionals who conducted the review were "appalled" by how normal protocols were violated. The blatant politicization was called "unprecedented in American history."
Ratcliffe compared the situation to later claims about Hunter Biden's laptop being Russian disinformation, arguing both cases show intelligence being weaponized for political gain. He said the episode damaged U.S.-Russia relations by exaggerating threats.
At minimum, Ratcliffe believes the key figures involved - Brennan, Clapper and Comey - should face professional consequences and "shouldn't have a voice" in influencing public opinion given their actions.
