Donald Trump signed the authority to release classified information about the Russian collusion case. He went on a tweetstorm this October 7, pressing for the documents released from the origins of that case. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe released the documents with that authority.
The release included handwritten notes from John Brennan, former Director of The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The notes were about his briefing to Obama and their meeting about Hillary Clinton’s plans to create a diversion about Russia and Donald Trump.
The FBI was looking into her use of an unauthorized private email server while serving as secretary of state. Fox News reports that the notes included the statement, “any evidence of collaboration between Trump + Russia.”
The notes mentioned an individual with the initials J.C. Other names included were Denis and Susan. Their last names were not in the notes from John Brennan. Speculation is that J.C. is James Comey, as he was the Director of the FBI. Susan Rice was Obama’s national security adviser. Denis could be Denis McDonough, who was Barack Obama’s chief of staff.
The released documents from the director of national intelligence
John Ratcliffe released documents last week in addition to this release.
The document released on October 7 was the notes from former CIA Director John Brennan about his briefing with Barack Obama. These notes were from his briefing about Hillary Clinton’s plan for Russian collusion.
The main purpose for Clinton to start this investigation was to distract from her investigation of using an unauthorized server when she was secretary of state.
John Brennan’s notes included redactions. The handwritten notes contained initials, which could possibly belong to James Comey, Susan Rice, or Denis McDonough. All three people held prominent positions in the Obama presidency.
The release followed the memo released before James Comey’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
That memo was for both Comey and Peter Strzok, assistant director of counterintelligence. The memo originated from the CIA to the FBI to start an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s plan for Russia collusion.
The CIA claimed in that memo that information from the Steel dossier contained Russian intelligence. The dossier was not credible, and the purpose was to vilify candidate Donald Trump. CIA stated that the information was not useful information to get a FISA warrant according to the released memo.
Democrats respond to release of new documents
Hillary Clinton has not responded to the allegations directly. Clinton’s Chief of Staff Nick Merrill responded by calling the allegation, “baseless b_ _ _ _ t,” as reported by Fox News.
He claimed the documents were Russian disinformation.
According to CNN, Senator Ron Wyden who is on the intelligence panel claims that “DNI Ratcliffe is abusing his position exactly as I feared he would.” Director of National Intelligence Ratcliffe is politicizing intelligence to help Donald Trump’s campaign against Joe Biden. He is picking the intelligence that becomes available to the public to further that cause.
The case for releasing the documents
The Russian collusion case dominated the news during the first half of Donald Trump’s presidency. Donald Trump has condemned the investigation classifying the case as the greatest crime against an American president ever. He allowed the declassification of the documents last year.
There has been no release of the information until last week by DNI Ratcliffe. He argued against the Democrats calling the information Russia disinformation.
The report from Fox news quotes DNI Ratcliffe saying, “to be clear, this is not Russian disinformation and has not been assessed as such by the intelligence community.” The released documents are from former CIA Director John Brennan and the memo was from the CIA. If this is Russian disinformation, then the CIA would be Russian assets.
Documents released earlier were about General Michael Flynn’s case. He pleaded guilty in his case but has since withdrawn that plea because of information gathered by his attorney Sidney Powell. Attorney General William Barr has dropped the case against Flynn.
The Department of Justice and Flynn’s original attorney agreed to the plea deal. The judge accepted the guilty plea but Michael Flynn changed his plea before sentencing.
The documents released were from an FBI case agent. They do not show his name. The agent was critical about the Russian investigations and the prosecution of Michael Flynn.
Donald Trump has claimed time after time that the investigation was a hoax. He has voiced his displeasure that no actions occurred for wrongdoing against the actors in the case.
The released documents show that the Department of Justice and the FBI spied on the opponent's political campaign - an abuse of power by these agencies. The Senate Judiciary Committee is now looking into the origins of the Russian collusion case.
The released documents show a pattern that members of Obama’s cabinet knew about the investigation. Brennan’s notes have heavy redactions, like the memo released prior. The released document shows a high probability that Barack Obama, John Brennan, James Comey, Susan Rice, and Denis McDonough could have known about the investigation.
They assigned John Durham to look into the beginnings of the Russian collusion case. He has indicted one attorney for changing evidence to advance his case. His investigation is ongoing and more charges are a possibility.
