Report States that the Obama Admin was Briefed on Claims that Hillary Clinton Orchestrated the Russia Controversy to Denigrate Trump and Cause Distraction from her Email Scandal

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified a report stating that the Obama Administration knew that Hillary Clinton, in order to divert from her email scandal, was trying to link Trump to Russia. On Tuesday, Ratcliffe told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Obama Admin had received the Russian information in July 2016, but said the intelligence community “doesn’t know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.”

The letter from Ratcliffe doesn’t have specific details of the intelligence but it does have handwritten notes from former CIA Director John Brennan which reveals he briefed former President Obama on the information. The letter does say that the intelligence contained 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.”

Lindsey Graham is Chairman for the Senate Judiciary Committee and he said this new information reveals there may be a double standard within the FBI and said, “Whether these allegations are accurate is not the question. The question is did the FBI investigate the allegations against Clinton like they did Trump? If not, why not? If so, what was the scope of the investigation? If non, why was that?” Graham also said that in a classified setting, deemed by Ratcliffe, he will be reviewing the information.

U.S. intelligence officials forwarded an investigative referral on Clinton in September 2016 to approve “a plan concerning U.S. Presidential Candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections” as she was trying to divert from her email scandal. The referral went from James Comey, former FBI Director, to Peter Strzok, Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence.

This letter doesn’t help the DOJ and the scrutiny they are already facing for costing American taxpayers over $30 million for a several-year-long special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign and Democratic influence on the Steele Dossier and other information.

Sources: Fox News, Conservative Brief; Photo-CNN