Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified an email from December 2016 that shows former DNI James Clapper pushing the intelligence community to break the rules to push Russiagate.
According to the documents, then-Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) Mike Rogers told Clapper, then-CIA Director John Brennan, and then-FBI Director James Comey that his team needed more time to review the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) before publishing anything.
“Specifically, I asked my team if they’d had sufficient access to the underlying intelligence and sufficient time to review that intelligence,” wrote Rogers. “On both points my team raised concerns.”
Rogers stressed to Clapper that his team members “aren’t fully comfortable saying they have had enough time to review all of the intelligence to be absolutely confident in their assessments.”
Rogers assured Clapper that his position does not mean the team does not “disagree substantively” with the information. Instead, they just needed to be sure to stand behind any documents that come out.
The former NSA director continued:
I know that you agree that this is something we need to be 100% comfortable with before we present it to the President – we have one chance to get this right, and it is critical that we do so. If the intent is to create an integrated product that is CIA/FBI/NSA jointly-authored that we can all defend, we need a process that allows us all to be comfortable, and I’m concerned we are not there yet. In addition, if NSA is intended to be a co-author of this product, I personally expect to see even the most sensitive evidence related to the conclusion.
Rogers also said if Clapper only wanted the CIA or the CIA and FBI to author the assessment, then he would “stand down on these concerns.”
In other words, slow down and take a deep breath.
Well, Clapper insisted the ICA be a team effort between the NSA, CIA, FBI, and ODNI.
Clapper explained the agencies had to be on the same page and “supportive of the report – in the highest tradition of ‘that’s OUR story, and we’re stickin’ to it.'”
Then Clapper dropped it on Rogers:
We will facilitate as much mutual transparency as possible as we complete the report, but, more time is not negotiable. We may have to compromise on our “normal” modalities, since we must do this on such a compressed schedule.This is one project that has to be a team sport.
No one gets an out of this situation.
But these emails confuse me because in March 2017, Clapper admitted their report did not show evidence of any collusion between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Notice what Clapper said, though, because it goes with that “team” emphasis in his email:
We did not include any evidence in our report, and I say, “our,” that’s N.S.A., F.B.I. and C.I.A., with my office, the Director of National Intelligence, that had anything, that had any reflection of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians. There was no evidence of that included in our report.
Man, Clapper has always wanted to ensure everyone knew about everyone’s involvement.
Gabbard has been on a roll with these drops to prove that the allegations of a Trump-Russia collusion in 2016 weren’t just accusations.
From what we’ve seen, former President Barack Obama’s administration cooked up the Trump-Russia story from the top down.
Those in charge bullied their staff, even firing people who wanted to do the right thing instead of toeing the line.
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