Trump-Russia Narrative Implodes, CIA Review Exposes Known Flaws in Intel [WATCH]

A newly declassified CIA review ordered by Director John Ratcliffe has sharply criticized the U.S. intelligence community’s 2016 assessment of Russian election interference, citing serious tradecraft failures and politically motivated decisions by former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey.

The review, dated June 26 and released Wednesday, evaluated the December 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 election with the intent to help President Donald Trump win.

NEW: Report via @CIADirector Ratcliffe

•Concludes that in 2016 then CIA Director Brennan and others rushed the Russia election interference intelligence assessment
•Brennan dismissed high level warnings that the Clinton campaign opposition research the “Steele dossier” did not… pic.twitter.com/tNsIzUY42H

— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) July 2, 2025

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Ratcliffe, in announcing the release on Tuesday, stated that President Trump had entrusted him with ending the “weaponization of U.S. intelligence” and said the findings revealed that the assessment was “conducted through an atypical & corrupt process” under Brennan and Comey.

All the world can now see the truth: Brennan, Clapper and Comey manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump. Thank you to the career @CIA officers who conducted this review and exposed the facts. https://t.co/S7Mxz6xA6P

— CIA Director John Ratcliffe (@CIADirector) July 2, 2025

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The eight-page document, compiled by the CIA’s Directorate of Analysis, found that the inclusion of the discredited Steele dossier—compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and funded by political opponents of Trump—“ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.”

The report detailed internal opposition within the CIA to including the Steele material, noting that “multiple senior CIA managers” and the “two senior leaders of the CIA mission center responsible for Russia” opposed its inclusion.

My former boss — CIA Director John Brennan — should rot in prison.

Based on our new understanding of his role in the Trump Russia hysteria, here are the five reasons for why he (and James Comey) should live the rest of their lives behind bars.

1) LYING ABOUT THE STEELE DOSSIER.… https://t.co/9wSF0TdWKW

— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) July 3, 2025

According to the review, Brennan overrode their objections, choosing instead to include a two-page summary of the dossier as an annex to the ICA and reference it in the body of the report.

The review stated: “Despite these objections, Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness.”

The decision, the report added, “implicitly elevated unsubstantiated claims to the status of credible supporting evidence.”

The CIA also faulted the FBI, led at the time by Comey and then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, for pushing aggressively to include the dossier.

According to the review, “FBI leadership made it clear that their participation in the ICA hinged on the Dossier’s inclusion and, over the next few days, repeatedly pushed to weave references to it throughout the main body of the ICA.”

Then-NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers had expressed only “moderate confidence” in the ICA’s claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin “aspired” to help Trump win—unlike the “high confidence” claimed by the CIA and FBI.

Rogers testified in 2017 that the sourcing did not meet the standard for the highest confidence level.

The new review affirms that stance, concluding that the “aspired” judgment “did not merit the ‘high confidence’ level” attached to it and citing a limited source base, lack of corroborating intelligence, and the failure to present alternate explanations.

Further findings revealed that ICA authors omitted information that contradicted the Putin “aspiration” judgment and did not sufficiently address uncertainty about sourcing, even though the material formed the basis for a central claim in the assessment.

CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis commented Tuesday that the report “shows how Brennan and Comey personally intervened to insert the Steele dossier’s lies into intelligence analysis.”

This CIA assessment echoes previous findings by multiple reviews critical of how the Russia investigation and related intelligence assessments were handled.

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found the Steele dossier played a “central and essential” role in the FBI’s surveillance of Trump campaign associate Carter Page, and Special Counsel John Durham concluded in 2023 that no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion existed at the start of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane probe.

Durham also found that the FBI ignored credible intelligence about a Clinton campaign plan to tie Trump to Russia, which was known internally as the “Clinton Plan.”

Brennan had briefed then-President Barack Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, and other senior officials on this intelligence during the 2016 campaign.

TRUMP’S INTELLIGENCE BOARD NAME OBAMA AS RUSSIA COLLUSION MASTERMIND. Trump’s recent post highlighted truth and transparency and the truth keeps pointing directly back to Obama as the man behind the curtain, with Clinton by his side.

A bombshell new CIA review of the Obama… pic.twitter.com/gOjW7bbSw2

— The SCIF (@TheIntelSCIF) July 3, 2025

Despite opposition from NSA analysts and CIA mission center leaders, the Clinton-funded Steele dossier became part of the U.S. intelligence process—first through its inclusion in the ICA, and later via its central role in multiple investigations and public narratives.

The 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee issued a report defending the ICA’s findings, but a separate 2018 House Intelligence Committee report led by then-Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) concluded the ICA’s judgments on Putin’s strategic objectives were flawed and lacked sufficient tradecraft.

The CIA’s newly released review now adds further weight to concerns that senior intelligence officials compromised analytical standards in 2016 amid political pressures.

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