Tradecraft Failures, Leadership Pressure Prominent in 2016 Russia-Trump Intel Assessment: CIA Report

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The report urged that future assessments avoid political pressures, allow sufficient time for debate, and uphold strict analytic independence.

A newly declassified CIA review has concluded that the 2016 U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia sought to help then-candidate Donald Trump win the presidential election was influenced by political pressures, rushed timelines, and the inclusion of discredited information.

Nonetheless, the assessment was โ€œdeemed defensibleโ€ by the review team.

Released on July 2 by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, the review details significant departures from standard analytic procedures in compiling the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian election interference, a declassified version of which was publicly released in January 2017.

Ratcliffeโ€™s newly released review found โ€œmultiple procedural anomaliesโ€ in the ICAโ€™s preparation.

It accuses former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper of exerting โ€œexcessive involvementโ€ in the drafting process in a manner that career analysts described as โ€œchaotic,โ€ โ€œunconventional,โ€ and with โ€œa potential political motive.โ€

โ€œAll the world can now see the truth: Brennan, Clapper, and Comey manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionalsโ€”all to get Trump,โ€ Ratcliffe said in a statement.

โ€œUnder my watch, I am committed to ensuring that our analysts have the ability to deliver unvarnished assessments that are free from political influence,โ€ he added.

The new review was prepared by career professionals in the CIAโ€™s Directorate of Analysis. It scrutinized the procedures and analysis behind the high-profile assessment, which had concluded with โ€œhigh confidenceโ€ that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin โ€œaspiredโ€ to help Trump win the presidency by using every possible opportunity to discredit Trumpโ€™s opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Ratcliffe said in a statement posted on social media platform X that the CIA review came amid efforts to โ€œend weaponization of US intelligence,โ€ and that the 2016 intelligence assessment was carried out through an โ€œatypical and corrupt process.โ€

By Tom Ozimek

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