John Brennan said that he will be meeting with U.S. Attorney John Durham very soon in order to answer some questions. Given everything that he did in 2015-2016, it's honestly hard to believe that this is only the first time that he's being questioned about anything.
Brennan told MSNBC anchor Nicole Wallace that he has no idea why there is even an investigation going on with the Obama administration spying on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. Maybe it's because they did?
For the longest time, Brennan confidently asserted that the Steele dossier played no role in the CIA's intelligence assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 elections.
John Brennan told Nicole Wallace: “I’m supposedly going to be interviewed by Mr. Durham as part of this non-investigation… I don’t understand the predication of this worldwide effort to try to uncover dirt… that would discredit that investigation in 2016.”
"I'm supposedly going to be interviewed by Mr. Durham as part of this non-investigation... I don't understand the predication of this worldwide effort to try to uncover dirt... that would discredit that investigation in 2016" - @JohnBrennan w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/FqDbIW9P41
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) October 2, 2019
The ICA, a report conducted by intelligence officials in 2016 on Russian election interference, was used to brief President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump in January 2017. According to the IG report, there was significant discussion by top intelligence officials as to whether the unverified Steele dossier should be included in the main body of the ICA report, summarized in an appendix, or even included at all.
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said that “he felt strongly that the Steele election reporting belonged in the body of the ICA, because he feared that placing it in an appendix was ‘tacking it on’ in a way that would ‘minimiz[e]’ the information and prevent it from being properly considered.”
Some of the key takeaways from the report were:
The FBI did not use the Steele dossier to open Russia probe
Lynch and Comey both sat for IG interviews
No evidence political bias was a factor
Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were not decision-makers (just obstructors)
Carter Page was the only Trump official under FISA surveillance
The first Carter Page FISA contained ‘seven significant inaccuracies and omissions’
Christopher Steele was dropped as FBI source after Mother Jones article
Steele had prior relationship with Ivanka Trump
Manafort was under investigation prior to Russia probe scrutiny
Leave a Reply