Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper overrode the objections of National Security Agency (NSA) Director Mike Rogers in order to advance the narrative that Russian President Vladimir Putin had interfered in the 2016 election with a clear preference for President Donald Trump, according to emails declassified by DNI Wednesday.
The emails involve Clapper and Rogers discussing the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) about Trump and Russia that touched off years of Russiagate media frenzy, consuming much of Trump’s first term.
Rogers expressed concerns about the sense of urgency, compressed timeline and compartmentalized intelligence involved in producing the ICA. The former NSA head relayed that some NSA analysts expressed concerns about not having access to the underlying intelligence nor the time to assess it.
“I’ve just returned from a TYD overseas and been updated on the current status of our efforts to produce a joint product related to Russian attribution and intent for the DNC/DCCC hacks. I know that this activity is on a fast-track,” Rogers wrote in a Dec. 22, 2016, email. “However I wanted to reach out to you directly to let you know of some of the concerns I have with what I’m hearing from my folks.”
“They were clear in saying that, at the staff level, folks have been forward-leaning and trying to ensure that we have an opportunity to weigh in, but I’m concerned that, given the expedited nature of this activity, my folks aren’t fully comfortable saying that we’ve had enough time to review all of the intelligence to be absolutely confident in their assessments,” he said.
“In addition, if NSA is intended to be a co-author on this product, I personally expect to see even the most sensitive evidence related to the conclusion,” he added.
Clapper overrode Rogers without defending the underlying intelligence and instead appealing to an ethos of intelligence being a “team sport.”
“It is essential that we (CIA/NSA/FBI/ODNI) be on the same page and are supportive of the report — in the highest tradition of ‘that’s OUR story, and we’re sticking to it,’” Clapper responded. “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,” he concluded.
Documents declassified by DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard in recent weeks have revealed that President Barack Obama’s intelligence chiefs spun, cherrypicked and in some cases wholly manufactured raw intelligence reports to support the narrative — predetermined in leaks to the media — that Putin had a “clear preference” for Trump and “aspired to help his election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton.” Some of these documents had been confined to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, for years.
“The leading figures in the Russia Hoax have spent years deceiving the American public by presenting their manufactured and politicized assessments as credible intelligence. The email released today reinforces what we already exposed: the decision to compromise standards and violate protocols in the creation of the 2017 manufactured intelligence assessment was deliberate and came from the very top,” said DNI Gabbard in a statement. “Clapper’s own words confirm that complying with the order to manufacture intelligence was a ‘team sport.’”
Though technically endorsed by the “big three” — the CIA, FBI and NSA — just five CIA analysts under Director John Brennan wrote the ICA, according to a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence report declassified on July 23. NSA assessed Putin’s aspiration to help Trump with only moderate confidence, while the FBI and the CIA made that assessment with high confidence.
The analysts were plucked from a “Fusion Cell” Brennan had formed months earlier to examine Russian election interference, according to a CIA self-assessment declassified on July 2.
Those analysts worked hand-in-glove with Brennan, churning out an assessment in less than a week in the days leading up to Christmas. Brennan hid the “sensitive intelligence” — the unverified, slanted and irrelevant raw intelligence reports — from other elements of the intelligence community until a two-day review process. The review happened using a card copy that was shuttled between Langley, Washington, DC, and Fort Meade, the report indicates.
The new documents represent the fourth tranche declassified by Gabbard regarding the Russiagate saga. Advisors to Gabbard detailed from various spy agencies are working to declassify documents in the public interest and clean house across the intelligence community.
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