A current CIA memo criticized intelligence leaders for dashing the 2016 Russia report.
Former CIA Director John Brennan stated on July 9 that he has not been contacted by the Division of Justice (DOJ), FBI, or the CIA following experiences that he and former FBI Director James Comey are beneath investigation.
Brennan stated in an interview with MSNBC that he has no information of any investigations however branded them as politically motivated.
“I do know nothing about this reported investigation or referral to the DOJ, apart from what I’ve learn in these press experiences, these leaks, which aren’t actually purported to occur if there’s an investigation occurring,” Brennan stated. “I believe that is sadly a really unhappy and tragic instance of the continued politicization of the intelligence group, of the nationwide safety course of.”
A DOJ spokesperson confirmed to a number of media retailers that Brennan and Comey are being investigated however declined to supply additional particulars.
The Epoch Occasions contacted the DOJ and FBI for remark. The FBI declined to remark. The DOJ didn’t reply by publication time.
Brennan made the feedback after Fox Information, citing unnamed sources, reported on July 8 that Brennan and Comey have been being investigated for alleged wrongdoing throughout probes into whether or not Russia sought to assist then-presidential candidate Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election over his challenger from the Democratic Occasion, Hillary Clinton.
Brennan headed the CIA when U.S. intelligence assessed with “excessive confidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin had sought to sway the 2016 election vote in Trump’s favor via an internet disinformation marketing campaign.
That discovering was supported by a bipartisan report launched in August 2018 by the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose appearing chairman was Marco Rubio, now Trump’s secretary of state.
Nevertheless, the report didn’t discover any proof of coordination between Russia and Trump’s marketing campaign.
Brennan instructed MSNBC that he was pleased with the work the CIA did in placing collectively the intelligence evaluation.
“We went to nice lengths to guard the integrity of the method, the integrity and sensitivity of the intelligence concerned and to guard the identities of the people which will have been implicated on this intelligence, together with from the Trump administration,” he stated, including that the evaluation had been “complete and exhaustive.”
Brennan’s and Comey’s roles in dealing with the intelligence group’s report on the Russia collusion allegations have been investigated throughout Trump’s first time period by particular counsel John Durham, who didn’t cost both with prison wrongdoing.
The most recent probe of Brennan and Comey comes after a CIA memo, dated June 25 and launched on July 2 by Director John Ratcliffe, stated it “doesn’t dispute the standard and credibility” of the extremely categorised CIA report that the evaluation’s authors relied on to conclude that Putin sought to sway the 2016 election.
The CIA states, citing an intelligence group evaluation, that “excessive confidence typically signifies that judgments are primarily based on high-quality info from a number of sources.”
Nevertheless, the memo criticized intelligence leaders for dashing the 2016 Russia report and the intelligence group for counting on a restricted supply base to precise with “excessive confidence” that Putin “aspired” to assist Trump win the 2016 election.
Trump has repeatedly rejected the Russian-collusion narrative.
Chatting with reporters on the White Home on July 9, Trump said he knew nothing concerning the probes of Brennan and Comey apart from what he learn that day.“No matter occurs, occurs,” the president stated.
Brennan and Comey didn’t reply to requests for remark.
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