Then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden were personally briefed by then-CIA Director John Brennan in 2016 that the CIA had evidence of Hillary Clinton planning to falsely link then-presidential candidate Donald Trump to Russia, according to a report by Special Counsel John Durham released Monday.
The report said the intelligence came from a “highly significant intelligence” from a “trusted foreign source pointing to a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server.”
Then-President Barack Obama (L) speaks as John Brennan (R) listens on January 7, 2013, in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Brennan briefed Obama, Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, and other senior government officials “days” after the tip was received.
There were handwritten notes from Brennan that showed he briefed about 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,” the report said.
Brennan briefed them on August 3, 2016 in the White House Situation Room, the report said. That meeting was to brief relevant intelligence known to date on Russian election interference, the report said.
The report said the CIA even sent a formal written referral to Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, Peter Strzok, for their consideration and action, but that the FBI took no steps to investigate the intelligence on Clinton’s plan.
Former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton shares a laugh with then-Vice President Joseph Biden, during a portrait unveiling ceremony for outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), on Capitol Hill December 8, 2016, in Washington, DC. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
“Unlike the FBI’s opening of a full investigation of unknown members of the Trump campaign based on raw, uncorroborated information, in this separate matter involving a purported Clinton campaign plan, the FBI never opened any type of inquiry, issued any taskings, employed any analytical personnel, or produced any analytical products in connection with the information,” the report said.
The revelation suggests that although Obama and Biden knew that the origins of the Trump campaign Russian collusion allegations was part of a plan by Clinton, they said nothing or did nothing and even perpetuated the idea that Russians were interfering in U.S. elections.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) greets President of USA Joe Biden (R) during the US – Russia Summit 2021 at the La Grange Villa near the Geneva Lake, on June,16,2021, in Geneva, Switzerland. (Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
On July 25, 2019, after Biden had begun his presidential campaign, he tweeted, “Russia undermined our democracy by interfering in the 2016 election. That’s a fact. We need a President who will stand up to the Kremlin, push back against Putin, and take immediate steps to ensure the security of our elections.”
Biden also pushed the false accusation that Trump had colluded with Russia in October 2019, tweeting Trump’s comment on the campaign trail, “Russia if you’re listening,” which was a joke regarding Clinton’s missing emails from her private server.
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