Obama admin briefed on claims Hillary Clinton drummed up Russia controversy to vilify Trump, distract from emails | Fox News

The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) declassified information indicating that former President Obama’s administration knew of allegations that former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was attempting to tie Trump to the Russia and distract from her email scandal before the 2016 presidential election.

DNI John Ratcliffe informed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that the prior administration obtained Russian intelligence in July of 2016 with allegations against Clinton, but cautioned that the intelligence community (IC) “does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.”

Ratcliffe’s letter doesn’t offer specifics on the intelligence but does reveal that former CIA Director John Brennan’s handwritten notes show that he briefed Obama on the information. According to his letter, the intelligence included the “alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services.”

In a statement on the letter, Ratcliffe pushed back on the idea he was advancing “Russian disinformation.” “To be clear, this is not Russian disinformation and has not been assessed as such by the Intelligence Community. I’ll be briefing Congress on the sensitive sources and methods by which it was obtained in the coming days.”

Source: Obama admin briefed on claims Hillary Clinton drummed up Russia controversy to vilify Trump, distract from emails | Fox News

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