Ratcliffe shares Russian allegation that Clinton 'stirred up' Trump-Russia scandal, admits it could be 'fabricated'

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe just shared the opposite of intelligence with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In a Tuesday letter, Ratcliffe let Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) know he'd declassified some Russian intelligence alleging Hillary Clinton may have launched President Trump's Russia scandal. Not that Ratcliffe, a Trump appointee who has defended the president on Russia before, had any idea if the allegation was true or not.

In July 2016, U.S. intelligence picked up Russian intelligence alleging the Democratic presidential nominee "had approved a plan to stir up a scandal against" Trump by "tying him to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Russian's hacking of the Democratic National Committee." Former CIA Director John Brennan apparently briefed then-President Barack Obama on the intelligence. But Ratcliffe noted the intelligence community "does not know the accuracy of this allegation," or if it contains "exaggeration or fabrication" — probably a reason it wasn't shared earlier.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Meanwhile, Ratcliffe has declined to release the U.S. intelligence community's annual global threat assessment — something Trump's former anti-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk said is more important than "sketchy Russia intel chatter." Kathryn Krawczyk