CIA Review Slams Former Director for 2016 Russiagate

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe has declassified and released the internal tradecraft review of the 2016 presidential election's Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) Wednesday.

It hits former President Barack Obama's CIA Director John Brennan for "insisting" on the use of the Steele Dossier against analysts' recommendations and crafting "a very politicized inquiry" against agency standards during the 2016 presidential transition to then-President-elect Donald Trump.

"Agency heads at the time created a politically charged environment that triggered an atypical analytic process around an issue essential to our democracy," Ratcliffe wrote in a statement, unveiling the results of the internal review. "Under my watch, I am committed to ensuring that our analysts have the ability to deliver unvarnished assessments that are free from political influence."

The lightly redacted eight-page document was designed to give a lessons-learned review of the investigation into allegations of Russia-led election interference intended to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton because former Russian spy-turned-leader Vladimir Putin "aspired" to help Donald Trump become president.

Ratcliffe's release sought to give Americans "analytic objectivity and transparency," while alleging the past CIA provided anything but.

And the CIA director's released concluded:

The tradecraft review identified multiple procedural anomalies in the preparation of the 2016 ICA, such as a compressed timeline, uneven access to compartmented information, marginalization of the National Intelligence Council, and excessive involvement of agency heads. The review notes that adhering to established analytic processes and rigorous tradecraft is essential to ensure credibility, objectivity, and accuracy of CIA analysis.

Among the assessed violation of standards was then Director James Comey's FBI insistence use of the infamous Steele Dossier in the ICA, according to the review:

The decision by agency heads to include the Steele Dossier in the ICA ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment. The ICA authors first learned of the Dossier, and FBI leadership's insistence on its inclusion, on 20 December — the same day the largely coordinated draft was entering the review process at CIA. FBI leadership made it clear that their participation in the ICA hinged on the Dossier's inclusion and, over the next few days, repeatedly pushed to weave references to it throughout the main body of the ICA.

The FBI insisted on using the Steele Dossier during the presidential transition to Donald Trump, despite the CIA senior leaders objections to then CIA Director John Brennan because it was credible.

"The ICA authors and multiple senior CIA managers — including the two senior leaders of the CIA mission center responsible for Russia — strongly opposed including the Dossier, asserting that it did not meet even the most basic tradecraft standards," the review read on page 4 and 5. "CIA's Deputy Director for Analysis (DDA) warned in an email to Brennan on 29 December that including it in any form risked 'the credibility of the entire paper.'"

The review alleges Brennan shelved tradecraft practices to use the Dossier in the ICA, and the review found that leaks on the findings of the ICA began appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post before the work began, effectively laundering intelligence to comport to a desired narrative to tarnish Trump during the 2016 presidential transition.

"However, before work on the assessment even began, media leaks suggesting that the IC had already reached definitive conclusions risked creating an anchoring bias," the review read on page 1. "On 9 December, both the Washington Post and New York Times reported the IC had concluded with high confidence that Russia had intervened specifically to help Trump win the election. The Post cited an unnamed U.S. official describing this as the IC's 'consensus view.'"

Ultimately, the CIA analysts warned Brennan against crafting the narrative Putin "aspired" to help Trump because much of the intelligence merely showed it was critical of Clinton, so assigning aspiration of aiding Trump "open up a line of very politicized inquiry," according to page 7 right before the Lessons Learned conclusion:

The review of the 2016 ICA revealed how departures from established processes and tradecraft standards can affect even fundamentally sound analysis. While the overall assessment was deemed defensible, the identified procedural anomalies and tradecraft issues highlight critical lessons for handling controversial or politically charged topics. Adhering to established analytic processes and rigorous tradecraft is essential to ensure credibility, objectivity, and accuracy—particularly when time pressures, sensitive information, and high-level attention create risks of compromising standard practices.

It was all a "get Trump" weaponization of intelligence campaign, Ratcliffe concluded of former Obama officials Brennan, Director of National Intelligence John Clapper, and FBI Director James Comey.

"All the world can now see the truth: Brennan, Clapper and Comey manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump," Ratcliffe posted to X, sharing reports on the released review. "Thank you to the career @CIA officers who conducted this review and exposed the facts."