Declassified CIA report criticizes US investigation into Russia's support for Trump in 2016 - AP

A declassified CIA document, published on Wednesday, calls into question the work done by intelligence agencies to conclude that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election because it wanted Republican Donald Trump to win, AP reports, writes UNN.

Details

The document, as stated, was written at the behest of CIA Director John Ratcliffe, a Trump supporter who opposed the Russia investigation as a member of Congress. It reportedly cites shortcomings in the 2017 intelligence assessment, which "concluded that the Russian government, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, conducted a covert influence campaign to help Trump win."

It does not mention that numerous investigations conducted since then, including a report by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020, reached the same conclusion about Russia's influence and motives.

The eight-page document, AP notes, is part of a long-standing effort by Trump and his close allies, who now head key government agencies, "to revise the history of the long-concluded Russia investigation, which led to criminal charges and overshadowed much of his first term, but also spawned unresolved grievances and contributed to the Republican president's deeply rooted suspicions of the intelligence community."

The report, as stated, is also Ratcliffe's latest attempt to challenge the decision-making and actions of intelligence agencies during the Russia investigation.

The report mentioned several "anomalies" that, according to the authors, could have influenced the conclusion, including rushed timelines and reliance on unverified information, such as the Democrat-funded opposition research on Trump's ties to Russia, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, the publication writes.

The report, as stated, pays particular attention to the inclusion of a two-page summary of the Steele dossier, which contained "salacious and unverified rumors about Trump's ties to Russia," in an appendix to the intelligence community assessment. It states that this decision, supported by the FBI, "indirectly elevated unsubstantiated claims to the status of credible corroborating evidence, jeopardizing the analytical integrity of the judgment."

But even though Ratcliffe accused senior intelligence officials of a "politically charged environment that provoked an atypical analytical process," his agency's report does not contradict any previous intelligence, the publication notes.

"This report doesn't change any of the underlying evidence — in fact, it doesn't even look at any of that evidence," said Brian Taylor, a Russia expert who directs the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Syracuse University.

Taylor suggested that the report may have been intended to bolster Trump's claims that the investigation into his ties with Russia was part of a Democratic hoax.

"Good intelligence analysts will tell you that their job is to speak truth to power," Taylor said. "If they tell a leader what he wants to hear, you often get unreliable intelligence."

Without me, Trump would have lost the election - Musk05.06.25, 21:50 • 4215 views