Two of Barack Obama’s appointees, John Brennan, who was at the CIA, and James Clapper, who was for a time the director of national intelligence, have gone public defending themselves against accusations they engaged in a “treasonous conspiracy” against then-candidate and now-President Donald Trump.
They have faced a barrage of accusations since current DNI Tulsi Gabbard and other officials in the current administration began releasing the previously secret documentation of the scheme that Democrats assembled and implemented against Trump.
It reportedly was triggered by Hillary Clinton’s concern that voters knew about her scandalous behavior in putting government secrets on a private computer server in her home. Evidence shows she organized a campaign to try, falsely, to link Trump to Russia.
Documents released only this week confirm that the FBI and CIA aided in the scheme, and there’s evidence that the highest officials in the country, from Obama’s Oval Office on down, likely were involved.
Now Brennan and Clapper have claimed in statements they submitted to the New York Times that they rejected that they engaged in a “treasonous conspiracy” to undermine Trump.
A report at the Washington Examiner said, “While the pair admitted that some critics say the investigation could have been handled better,” they claim years-long reviews have confirmed their perspective on the story.
However, there has been advice to the participants of the scheme to “lawyer up,” as multiple individuals from Obama down are under congressional and Department of Justice investigation, and some already have been making arrangements with defense counsel.
The two claimed, in the Times, “That is patently false. In making those allegations, they seek to rewrite history. We want to set the record straight and, in doing so, sound a warning.”
However, the reams of documents that already have been released confirm that that anti-Trump campaign was created, was implemented, and actually was intended to undermine the duly elected president of the United States.
“Clapper and Brennan also misleadingly claimed that Justice Department special counsel John Durham, who was appointed during Trump’s first term, found no evidence of an ‘Obama administration conspiracy against Mr. Trump.’ Durham found significant wrongdoing at the start of the Russia investigation,” the report charged.
They claim, still, that every “serious” review of the situation found the Russians “conducted an influence campaign intended to help Mr. Trump win the 2016 election.” Actually, newly revealed documents show that the intel community found such Russian influence to be negligible and have no impact, until Obama ordered the reports rewritten, apparently using Clinton campaign propaganda, to insist that Trump was benefited.
“Clapper and Brennan also sought to defend themselves on three issues: the discredited Steele dossier, whether their intelligence assessment on Russia made a judgment about Russian interference in the election, and alleged ‘collusion’ between the Trump campaign and Russia,” the report said.
Their written statements also ran head-first into other issues, the report said.
They claimed the Steele dossier, assembled by a former British agent, played no significant role in the intelligence assessments at the time. But the fact is documents released by CIA chief John Ratcliff and Gabbard confirm Brennan insisted that the false statements be presented with any intel assessment.
Further, they claimed there was no mention of collusion in the intel report.
However, reports at the time did “conclude that Russia aspired to help Trump win, and Gabbard and Ratcliffe have declassified records that suggest Brennan and Clapper did not have credible evidence to support that conclusion.”
They claim that it now is the Trump administration that is doing a “calculated distortion of intelligence.”
Ratcliffe has confirmed Brennan and Clapper could face charges.
“We’re gonna continue to share the intelligence that would support the ability of our Department of Justice to make fair and just, bring fair and justice claims against those who have perpetrated this hoax against the American people and this stain on our country,” he explained.
Gabbard has referred Obama and others to the DOJ for investigation and possible prosecution.
“There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Barack Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew that was false. The evidence that we have found and that we have released directly point to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment. There are multiple pieces of evidence and intelligence that confirm that fact,” she charged.
