The analysts who crafted the corrupt Intelligence Community Assessment (“ICA”) on Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election on behalf of disgraced former CIA Director John Brennan remain active at the CIA, a source familiar with the assessment told The Federalist. Multiple other sources familiar with the House intelligence committee’s investigation into the Russia-collusion hoax added that HPSCI interviewed the specific people responsible for writing the ICA. And as The Federalist reported earlier this week, that HPSCI staff report established that the ICA was “significantly worse and significantly more corrupt than conveyed in the memorandum released last week by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.”
Taken together then, it seems there are two possible conclusions: Either Director Ratcliffe’s efforts to clean out the agency have hit a snag, or the CIA director is quietly seeking to hold Brennan’s collaborators accountable — just as he has done in the case of Brennan and former FBI Director Comey, who now reportedly face criminal referrals based on the CIA’s investigation into the ICA.
Last Tuesday, Director Ratcliffe released a report summarizing the CIA’s probe into the crafting of the ICA. That CIA report detailed numerous problems related to the assessment of Russia’s activities in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. The CIA report, among other things, concluded the ICA should not have attributed “high confidence” to the conclusion that “Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances.” The ICA also should not have included the Steele Dossier in its annex or referenced it in the text of the report, the CIA concluded.
The CIA’s investigation into the ICA exposed damning information related to former CIA Director John Brennan’s role in producing the bogus report, as well as details implicating the then-FBI Director James Comey in the get-Trump conspiracy. But as The Federalist reported earlier this week, “the CIA report pales in comparison to the real corruption at play, according to sources familiar with a separate HPSCI staff report.”
According to sources, HPSCI, under the leadership of then-Chair Devin Nunes, “found the ICA significantly worse and significantly more corrupt than was conveyed in the CIA report.” As The Federalist further reported, “[t]he staff report also reveals more details related to the ICA’s report on Russia’s 2016 influence campaign.”
Now another source familiar with the HPSCI staff report has told The Federalist that the analysts who actually drafted the ICA report for Brennan are still with the CIA — some maybe even having been promoted after compiling the faulty report in violation of standard operating procedures.
Given the serious flaws exposed last week by CIA Director Ratcliffe and that the ICA on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election was significantly more corrupt than the CIA’s report revealed, that the analysts that assisted Brennan and his ilk in the get-Trump effort remain at the Agency raises grave concerns.
A spokesperson for the CIA did not respond to The Federalist’s questions concerning what Director Ratcliffe has done, or will do, to ensure these analysts’ faulty and biased tradecraft is not continuing under Trump 2.0. The CIA also did not comment on whether the analysts responsible for the bogus ICA will face disciplinary action or are themselves the subject of a criminal referral.
It seems unlikely, however, that Director Ratcliffe will be content with outing the big names, while leaving the minions in place. In fact, the most obvious explanation for Director Ratcliffe’s failure to release the HPSCI staff report or to include the extensive details of corruption from that report in the CIA analysis of the ICA, is that the investigation is still ongoing.
Let’s hope so — and in the meantime, the CIA Director would be wise to keep a close leash on Brennan’s boys.
Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. Margot’s work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion, National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press.
She is also a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio programs and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. Cleveland is also of counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance.
Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland where you can read more about her greatest accomplishments—her dear husband and dear son. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.
