Recently declassified documents and interviews with former Trump officials provide new detail on how members of President Donald Trump’s first-term cabinet and senior appointees did not disclose evidence that challenged the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) produced at the end of the Obama administration. The ICA asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed efforts to help Trump win the 2016 election. According to the newly released material, the assessment relied on minimal and unverified intelligence and incorporated political opposition research funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Former Special Counsel John Durham, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former CIA Director Gina Haspel either withheld or delayed evidence that raised questions about the ICA. Durham, appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr, halted the release of exculpatory intelligence on the eve of the 2020 election. This Could Be the Most Important Video Gun Owners Watch All Year The evidence included a 2018 review that found the ICA’s core claims were supported by “one scant, unclear and unverifiable fragment of a sentence” from a low-quality intelligence report and by portions of the Steele dossier. Former Trump national security adviser J. D. Gordon said the handling of the ICA allowed the narrative to persist publicly during Trump’s presidency. “The Russiagate betrayal continued in plain sight,” he said. In mid-2018, Bolton’s chief of staff, Fred Fleitz, reviewed a draft House Intelligence Committee report in a secure Capitol facility. The report stated that the ICA misrepresented the Steele dossier’s value and relied on intelligence later proven false or unsubstantiated. Fleitz relayed the findings to Bolton, but Bolton did not brief Trump. “He didn’t do anything with it. He never told Trump,” Fleitz said. Pompeo, then Trump’s CIA director, was briefed on the House committee’s findings. Derek Harvey, a former senior adviser to the committee, said Pompeo doubted the conclusions and the committee did not receive cooperation from the agency. Haspel, Pompeo’s deputy and later CIA director, oversaw restrictions on the House committee’s review of classified ICA source documents from 2017 to 2020. Investigators were required to work inside a CIA read room, leave all materials in the building each night, and use CIA-issued computers that committee staff later reported malfunctioned and lost text. The committee also said CIA technical changes made the machines “unstable and unreliable.” Access to the ICA’s five principal authors was delayed for nearly five months. Haspel secured all drafts of the House report and investigators’ notes in a vault until she left office in January 2021. Before leaving, she urged Barr and Durham not to release the findings before the 2020 election. Fleitz described this as “insubordination to a U. S. president.” Haspel had previously served in London during 2016, when FBI investigators, including Peter Strzok, pursued leads that later informed the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Attempts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful. As Trump’s first term ended, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe sought to declassify a 44-page report refuting the ICA. Durham objected, saying he needed the material for his investigation, and Ratcliffe agreed to delay release. The document remained withheld until Trump’s current National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified it in July. A former senior intelligence official familiar with the process said the committee provided thousands of pages of supporting documents to Durham. “After we gave Durham the report. he went ghost,” the official said. Durham’s final 316-page report, released in 2023, made only a brief footnote reference to the ICA. The ICA is now part of criminal inquiries involving former Obama-era officials, including Brennan and Clapper. Federal prosecutors in Florida have issued subpoenas for records related to the drafting of the 2016-2017 assessment. Former officials who cooperated with the House review said the ICA became the foundation for numerous investigations of Trump and his advisers. Harvey said, “The CIA engaged in a conspiracy to fabricate intelligence against Trump.” He also said analysts were pressured to alter pre-election assessments to align with the ICA’s conclusions. A whistleblower who worked under then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told investigators he believed raw intelligence was manipulated. He contacted Durham but was never interviewed. Fleitz said the declassified material shows that intelligence was “rigged and politicized.” He said Trump-appointed officials allowed the ICA to stand unchallenged during the administration, despite evidence calling its claims into question.
https://www.lifezette.com/2025/11/trump-first-term-appointees-russiagate-involvement-exposed-in-new-report/
Trump First Term Appointees’ Russiagate Involvement Exposed in New Report
