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Former CIA Director John Brennan was once my boss. Given what we just learned in a shocking new report about his role in the Trump Russia hysteria, he should be in prison.
Here’s why.
The CIA released fresh details yesterday about the creation nearly 10 years ago of the agency’s Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) of Russia’s influence campaign in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It found that Russian President Vladimir Putin “aspired” to help then-candidate Donald Trump win the election. That assessment – ordered by then-President Barack Obama and executed by Brennan – ignited the Trump-Russia hoax that would haunt Trump’s presidency for four years.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan participates in a session at the third annual Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington, U.S., September 8, 2016. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
We’re now learning five key details Brennan used to cook the books to ensure maximum damage to Trump.
1) Brennan lied about his use of the discredited Steele dossier
He told The Wall Street Journal in January of 2017 he never read it and gave it no particular credence.
He was lying.
As his former staffers now admit, Brennan specifically pushed for the inclusion of the dossier in the ICA despite explicit warnings from his top operational and analytical management that the dossier “didn’t meet the most basic [of] tradecraft standards.”
Brennan said he didn’t care.
As we’re now learning, he said he wanted it included because it “fit narrative consistency” — aka Trump Russia collusion — and that then-FBI Director James Comey was demanding the same.
That’s shocking, because both Comey and Brennan’s agencies had investigated its allegations in the fall of 2016 and found them not to be credible.
But both Comey and Brennan still wanted it in, simply and clearly to destroy President Trump.
2) Brennan manipulated who would write the ICA
As we’re now learning, Brennan demanded that his agency take the lead in drafting the ICA, intentionally blocking out other intel agencies and the National Intelligence Council.
As the new report confirms, that decision “depart[ed] significantly from standard procedures for formal IC assessments.”
But why would Brennan do that?
As a former CIA officer, I know why: He wanted to control the authors (his employees), their assessment, any dissent, and their careers if they crossed him.
3) Brennan interfered in the ICA’s drafting
As the new report confirms, “Direct engagement in the ICA’s development [by agency head Brennan] was highly unusual in both scope and intensity. This exceptional level of senior involvement likely influenced participants, altered normal review processes, and ultimately compromised analytic rigor.”
In other words, Brennan knew he could make or break the careers of his analysts. And so he did — ensuring that he got the exact ICA he wanted, which included the junk dossier and a single-source intel report on fabricated “Trump-Russia Collusion.”
4) Brennan rushed the completion of the ICA
As we’re now learning, CIA analysts felt “jammed” by Brennan’s timeline to produce the ICA by late December 2016 — despite the fact that “the election had concluded, and the ICA was essentially a post-mortem analysis.”
The highly compressed timeline was “atypical” for an ICA, which “ordinarily can take months to prepare, especially for assessments of such length, complexity, and political sensitivity.”
But Brennan didn’t care. He wanted this ICA done by the time Trump got into office.
Former FBI Director James Comey (Getty Images)
5) Brennan (and Comey) spread the ICA far and wide to leak it
The new report confirms that Brennan and Comey shared the ICA with “more than 200 U.S. officials. This is unusually high for such a highly compartmented product…”
In other words, they briefed it to leak it — to destroy Trump.
In fact, that’s what The New York Times suspected, too. As they asked their readers in January of 2017, why would Brennan and Comey have briefed and shared the discredited dossier “to multiple people in Congress and the executive branch, virtually assuring it would be leaked?”
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The answer: Brennan and Comey spread the ICA (and dossier) far and wide to ensure it all leaked and hobbled Donald Trump — and destroyed his presidency.
Bottom line: John Brennan, James Comey, and their fellow anti-Trumpers in the U.S. intel community intentionally tried to destroy the presidency of Donald Trump — with a tightly controlled, scripted, rushed, and poorly sourced ICA (and dossier).
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In doing so, they tried to destroy not just President Trump, but also the Republic itself. And that’s why this still matters.
These men thought they knew what was best for America, and they didn’t give a damn what voters like you thought. It was their country – not yours – and they were willing to act with their profound powers to destroy a politician they didn’t like.
That’s why these men deserve to rot in prison, along with anyone in the Obama White House or Clinton campaign who colluded with them.
