[ April 26, 2024 ]
Far-left radicals used the full force of our intel and LE agencies to stage a coup.
FBI forced Trump dossier into intelligence community’s election assessment
By Rowan Scarborough – The Washington Times – Thursday, April 23, 2020
Officials included a reference to the anti-Trump dossier in the intelligence community’s 2017 Russia election assessment only as a “compromise” with the FBI, which “would have had a major problem” if the document was ignored, according to a Senate report.
Story continues below advertisementThe Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report, “Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference,” makes clear that the CIA and other intelligence agencies had little interest in folding dossier author Christopher Steele’s various allegations into its historic Intelligence Community Assessment.
But the FBI, which had begun what would be a long investigation into President Trump and his campaign, insisted. CIA Director John O. Brennan and others agreed to allow a two-page dossier summary to appear in a top-secret Appendix A as opposed to the FBI demand that it be made a part of the official record.
“FBI officials told the Committee that they ‘would have had a major problem’ if Annex A had not been included,’ and that FBI believed they ‘had to put everything in,’” the Senate report says.
An FBI assistant director urged its inclusion even though the bureau did not “stand behind” the material.
“A summary of this material was included in Annex A as a compromise to FBI’s insistence that the information was responsive to the presidential tasking,” the report states.
“It did include a summary of this material in an annex — largely at the insistence of FBI’s senior leadership,” the report says.
The senior FBI leaders at the time, in December 2016, were Director James B. Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Mr. Comey told the Senate committee: “I insisted that we bring it to the party, and I was agnostic as to whether it was footnoted in the document itself, put as an annex. I have some recollection of talking to John Brennan maybe at some point saying: ‘I don’t really care, but I think it is relevant and so ought to be part of the consideration.’”
The dossier was financed by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic Party. Newly declassified items in a report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz shows that Russian intelligence provided dossier disinformation about Mr. Trump and his aides.
None of Mr. Steele’s Trump allegations, such as a conspiracy with Russia, has proved true.
Mr. Horowitz’s December report documented the FBI’s push to make the dossier part of official intelligence history. The Washington Times first reported the FBI’s desire in 2018.
The Senate report adds new details, such as a warning by FBI officials that it would be a “major problem” if the dossier was ignored altogether.
The appendix was a two-page summary titled “Additional Reporting From an FBI Source on Russian Influence Efforts.” The FBI’s “letter head memorandum,” official bureau parlance, carried the word “CROWN.”
For the Senate intelligence committee, its fourth report on Russian election interference made rare dossier references.
Chairman Richard Burr, North Carolina Republican, has left public discussion about the dossier to other lawmakers. He said the dossier will be addressed more fully in the committee’s final Russia report, this one on counterintelligence.
Earlier this month, Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin succeeded in getting the administration to declassify the material on Russian anti-Trump disinformation.
In the House, Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican, worked for two years to force the FBI to disclose its heavy reliance on the dossier to obtain four surveillance warrants on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page.
The Horowitz report said the FBI committed more than a dozen offenses of supplying inaccurate information and hiding exonerating material in spying applications to judges.
The Senate report underscores again how the FBI embraced the dossier. In January 2017, Mr. Steele’s main source told agents he was repeating Moscow gossip to Mr. Steele, and in February the intelligence community warned the FBI of Russian disinformation.
Intelligence personnel made clear in December 2016 that they wanted to steer clear of a dossier that would be discredited in the ensuing three years. The Intelligence Community Assessment was released on Jan. 6, 2017.
“All individuals the Committee interviewed stated that the Steele material did not in any way inform the analysis in the ICA, including the key judgments, because it was unverified information and had not been disseminated as serialized intelligence reporting,” the committee said.
The Intelligence Community Assessment’s major conclusion was that Russia interfered in the election to hurt Mrs. Clinton and help Mr. Trump.
Republicans point out that Russian intelligence was trying to harm candidate Trump by penetrating Mr. Steele’s reporting with fake allegations.
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8 Comments
4 years ago
Why doesn’t A.G. Barr have a problem with this?
4 years ago
That’s what this is all about. If there was no Wuflu in the news guess what would be: THIS.
4 years ago
And now, a firestorm of indictments, right? (crickets – crickets – crickets). There are two strata in the judicial system: one for the common citizen; the other stratum is for untouchable politicians, IslamoTangos, illegal aliens, minority group agitators and media glitterati. I am not holding my breath for ANY justice.
4 years ago
The fake investigation of Trump was not the first attempt at destroying anyone and anybody they were intendedto target. You can easily rig a criminal conspiracy. Read Sydney Powells’ “License to Lie.” and you will understand this is SOP for the FBI and the DOJ. They are truly a collection of the dregs of humanity, wannabe Stalins, and scum. Every DOJ and FBI investigation needs to be reopened and those unjustly convicted released and compensated.
4 years ago
At the time (early 2017) whether the Steele Dossier was accurate was still under investigation (Comey informed Trump that it had been partially confirmed) so including it in the report was not unreasonable–just being complete.
How do you get a coup out of that?
BTW, if Brennan was the evil traitor aiming to discredit Trump that you intend to believe he was, why wouldn’t he push to include it in the body of the report?
4 years ago
Ah… The Lynch mob should be lynched…
