Former CIA Director John Brennan and ex-FBI chief James Comey are under investigation for potential wrongdoing in the counterintelligence probe into Russian collusion, which set off one of the largest media hoaxes in history. It became official last night (via Fox News):
Former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey are under criminal investigation for potential wrongdoing related to the Trump–Russia probe, including allegedly making false statements to Congress, Justice Department sources told Fox News Digital.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred evidence of wrongdoing by Brennan to FBI Director Kash Patel for potential prosecution, DOJ sources told Fox News Digital.
There are two whom The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland pointed out escaped this investigation. However, one name you all know could never be put on this list: former President Barack Obama. He was the ringleader, the quarterback, the big cheese regarding the politicization of the intelligence community against Donald J. Trump.
Brennan is no saint, never has been, and he did meddle in the intelligence estimate on Russian interference, which elevated the Trump dossier, compiled by ex-MI6 spook Christopher Steele, to credible status despite it being unverifiable and likely false. Analysts knew it was trash since it was a Clinton campaign-funded opposition research project, which had Kremlin sources who knowingly fed Steele misinformation. But Brennan forced it into the assessment, which was ordered by Obama (via The Federalist):
..the CIA’s review of the ICA on Russia’s targeting of the 2016 election exposed something much more scandalous: President Obama was behind the entire plot to portray Putin as seeking to help Trump win the 2016 general election.
Yes, the CIA report showed, in the words of CIA Director Ratcliffe, “how Brennan and Clapper and Comey manipulated [and] silenced all the career professionals and railroaded the process.” But they were merely doing the dirty work for Obama, which is why CIA Director Ratcliffe stressed: “This was Obama, Comey, Clapper and Brennan deciding ‘We’re going to screw Trump.’”
While last week’s CIA report did not finger President Obama with the same neon-light arrow deployed by Director Ratcliffe, the details included confirm that yes, “[t]his was Obama;” and not merely that Obama knew or condoned the politicalization of the intelligence community, but that the former president directed the politicalization.
On December 6, 2016, President Obama “direct then-Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper to conduct a comprehensive review of all available intelligence and provide the IC’s best assessment of Russian activities related to the election,” the CIA report explained. That ask alone would not necessarily be concerning, but as a sidebar of the CIA report revealed, President Obama also put a timeline to that task, requiring both classified and unclassified versions of the report be published before the presidential transition.
So, not only did President Obama order the review, but he also directed it be completed essentially within a month and before Trump’s inauguration. There is no legitimate reason for Obama to demand the publication of an ICA on such a short timeframe, given the election had already concluded and thus the analysis would present “essentially a post-mortem analysis.”
Not only was there no legitimate reason for Obama to direct the completion of the ICA before the Trump transition, as the CIA report highlighted, “[t]he highly compressed timeline was atypical for a formal IC assessment, which ordinarily can take months to prepare, especially for assessments of such length, complexity, and political sensitivity.” Also unusual was the lack of changes between the draft version and the final version of the ICA, with “[o]ne of CIA’s lead authors express[ing] surprise that the review process had resulted in so few changes, which was ‘unusual’ for such a lengthy, complex, and high-profile assessment.”
President Obama’s involvement was also not limited to the tasking and timing of the ICA. Rather, as the CIA report noted, “[i]n his book Undaunted, Brennan reveals that he established crucial elements of the process with the White House.”
And yes, James Clapper, the former DNI, is also another person who should be investigated if we’re going to do this right. The tea leaves were there. Five years ago, Mollie Hemingway, also of The Federalist, wrote about the secret meeting Obama held in the waning weeks of his presidency to ensure the Russia probe could continue as Trump prepared to take over during his first presidency.
No one is above the law.
