Ex-CIA Director John Brennan's bad year could get a lot worse: 'Maybe they have to pay a price for that'



John Brennan, former director of the CIA and chief counterterrorism adviser to former President Barack Obama, appears to be having a rough year — and it's likely to get a lot worse.

How it started

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order blasting Brennan and the 50 other former intelligence officials who signed the infamous Oct. 19, 2020, letter, which served to discredit the New York Post's factually accurate Oct. 14 report about the discovery and damning contents of Hunter Biden's laptop.

"The signatories willfully weaponized the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions," Trump noted in the order.

'All the world can now see the truth.'

To remedy this perceived injustice, Trump decided to revoke signatories' security clearances, which prompted Brennan to whine on MSNBC, claiming this was just the president's effort to "try to get back at those individuals who have criticized him openly and publicly in the past."

There were, however, more skeletons in Brennan's closet the Trump administration wanted to take for a walk.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe released a damning review last week concerning how the agency under Brennan reached the conclusion that Russia tried to sway the 2016 election in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump.

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Ratcliffe's review indicates that the intelligence community's December 2016 assessment, which was conducted at the urging of Obama and became a pillar of the Russian collusion hoax, was a rushed botch job impacted by "multiple procedural anomalies."

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 Photo by Evy Mages/Getty Images

Despite high-level warnings that the Steele dossier — a political opposition research report paid for in part by the Clinton campaign — "did not meet even the most basic tradecraft standards" and posed credibility risks, Brennan reportedly included it in the assessment anyway, showing "a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness," says Ratcliffe's review.

The review also indicates that the direct engagement in the assessment's development by Brennan was "highly unusual in both scope and intensity" and "likely influenced participants, altered normal review processes, and ultimately compromised analytic rigor."

Ratcliffe noted on X, "All the world can now see the truth: Brennan, Clapper and Comey manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump."

'I think they're crooked as hell.'

A week after the release of the report, Department of Justice sources revealed to Fox News Digital that Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey are under criminal investigation for potential wrongdoing related to the Russian collusion hoax, including allegedly making false statements to Congress.

While little detail has been provided about the investigation — the New York Times noted that CIA and FBI officials have declined to comment, and the DOJ has indicated it won't comment on "ongoing investigations" — DOJ sources reportedly characterized the FBI's view of Comey and Brennan's interactions as a "conspiracy."

The Washington Post confirmed, however, that Ratcliffe referred Brennan to the FBI last week to be criminally investigated for allegedly lying to Congress.

The facts outlined in Ratcliffe's review appear to disagree with Brennan's 2023 assertion to Congress, under oath, that he did not believe the Steele dossier should be included in the intelligence assessment.

How it's going

Seeing the writing on the wall, Brennan did what he does best: play the victim on cable news.

After Ratcliffe released his review, Brennan went on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House" last week to invoke Nazi Germany and suggest that the Department of Justice's investigation into him and Comey was straight out of the "authoritarian playbook."

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 Photographer: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

On Wednesday, Brennan picked up where he left off, telling MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, "This is, unfortunately, a very sad and tragic example of the continued politicization of the intelligence community, of the national security process."

When asked on Wednesday whether he wanted to see Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey thrown in jail, President Donald Trump said, "I think they're very dishonest people. I think they're crooked as hell, and maybe they have to pay a price for that. I believe they are truly bad people and dishonest people. So whatever happens, happens."

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Horowitz: DNI Ratcliffe accuses CIA of covering up Chinese interference in 2020 election



We should have known. Everything the Democrats insinuate against and project upon Trump is usually something they and their allies are concocting as we speak. They spent four years accusing Trump of colluding with the Russians to steal the 2016 election. Now, according to the director of national intelligence (DNI), the Chinese were trying to interfere in the 2020 election, but the CIA stifled that information from getting out to lawmakers and the public, even as it pushed the Russian collusion hoax. Which party do you think is in bed – quite literally – with the Chinese?

Yesterday, the Washington Examiner published a letter DNI John Ratcliffe sent to Congress on January 7, warning that he does not believe "the majority view expressed by the Intelligence Community (IC) analysts fully and accurately reflects the scope of the Chinese government's efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. federal elections."

Ratcliffe cited a report by the Intelligence Community's analytic ombudsman Barry Zulauf, which was originally posted by the Examiner 10 days ago, accusing the CIA of applying a double standard when assessing Russian influence vs. Chinese influence in our elections.

"Given analytic differences in the way Russia and China analysts examined their targets, China analysts appeared hesitant to assess Chinese actions as undue influence or interference," Zulauf wrote. "These analysts appeared reluctant to have their analysis on China brought forward because they tended to disagree with the Administration's policies, saying in effect, I don't want our intelligence used to support those policies."

Here is the crux of Ratcliffe's concern based on the Zulauf report:

  

So, we are just supposed to go on with our lives and pretend like there is nothing to do on the China front or the election integrity front?

What is so disconcerting is that Ratcliffe didn't voice these concerns earlier last year or at least in November when the entire media and Trump's own administration disregarded any concerns about election security and stifled any question of congressional or state legislative hearings.

The projection of the left is mind-boggling. Leftists accuse their opponents of sacking democracy while they lock down the Bill of Rights for an entire year and parade over 20,000 troops in our nation's capital with no violent actors in sight. They talk about insecure elections for four years, but suddenly there is no problem with election security even as we know the Chinese are trying to interfere with elections and we had the most unusual process of casting ballots this year in our nation's history. They accuse Trump of creating a Berlin wall to keep out foreign belligerents at our southern border but are now surrounding the people's House with high walls to keep out Americans.

How any Republican can move on from this election without any effort at the state and federal levels to reform our elections is criminal. They refuse to even create an election commission, which was the entire purpose of objecting to certification of the election on January 6. Putting aside the issue with mail-in ballots, none of us have given enough thought to the electronic voting systems. The vulnerability to cyber attacks should concern everyone and indeed did concern the Democrats after the 2016 election.

A return to paper ballots should be a no-brainer for anyone who wants to secure our elections. But alas, at this pace, such a view will be deemed criminal speech that is not protected by the First Amendment. Rather than focusing our IC like laser beams on China counterintelligence, they will focus singularly on conservatives who raise concerns about them.

NBC’s Jeremy Bash on the Capitol Hill rioters: “We’re going to have to reset our entire intelligence approach … We’… https://t.co/vOWo7Tat3V
— Tom Elliott (@Tom Elliott)1610970593.0

So next time you wonder why the IC is not focused on external threats to our security, just remember that we the people are the enemy. And that is exactly how the Chinese Communists want it.

BREAKING: Director of National intelligence will NOT interface with Biden transition team until it's clear who won election

The Office of the DNI has just released a memo stating that no transition actions will be undertaken until the GSA has a clear winner of the elections.

DNI shoots back at Schiff: 'No intelligence' that Hunter Biden laptop story is 'part of some Russian disinformation campaign’



Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe fired back at Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and other top Democrats Monday by clarifying that the bombshell reports on a laptop allegedly tied to Hunter Biden are "not part of some Russian disinformation campaign."

Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, recently told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that the reports, which stem from a hard drive that has an alleged connection to former Vice President Joe Biden's son, are actually Russian propaganda. Schiff, along with other Democrats who parroted the narrative, did not supply any evidence for their claims.

According to Ratcliffe, that's because there isn't any.

Speaking with Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo on Monday, Ratcliffe said, "Let me be clear, the intelligence community doesn't believe that, because there's no intelligence that supports that, and we have shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden's laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign — it's simply not true."

"Apparently Chairman Schiff wants anything against his preferred political candidate to be deemed as not real and is ... attempting to use the intelligence community to say 'There's nothing to see here,'" Ratcliffe continued. "Don't drag the intelligence community into this; Hunter Biden's laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign."

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe blasts Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff for leveraging a political narrat… https://t.co/sdOYbU28wq
— Steve Guest (@Steve Guest)1603111131.0

In the interview with CNN, Schiff declared, "We know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin. That's been clear for well over a year now that they've been pushing this false narrative about the vice president and his son."

Ratcliffe suggested that is patently false, arguing that "the only intelligence that Adam Schiff gets is the intelligence that we, the intelligence community, give him, and we have given him no such intelligence."

"Members of Congress have the ability and have a platform to say things, and to say those things not under oath and to make representations to the American people. Unfortunately, sometimes the things that they say and the things that they represent are not true," the DNI pointed out. "In this case, with regard to Hunter Biden's laptop being part of a Russian disinformation campaign and the intelligence community believing that or assessing that, [it] is simply not true."

Hunter Biden Bombshell - Emails reportedly from the former Vice President's son's laptop revealing massive business… https://t.co/QoPMJwvwYy
— Mornings with Maria (@Mornings with Maria)1603112227.0

The controversy surrounding the laptop was first reported by the New York Post last week. In a series of articles, the Post disclosed emails and text messages purportedly demonstrating how Hunter Biden was cashing in on his father's high-profile government position, making business deals in Ukraine, China, and elsewhere under the promise of political leverage.

The Post reportedly obtained a copy of the hard drive from President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, after it was allegedly dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop and never retrieved. The repair shop owner reportedly gave a copy of the hard drive to Giuliani and handed over the hard drive to the FBI, as well.

Hunter Biden has not denied dropping off a laptop at the computer repair shop in 2019.

BREAKING: DNI confirms Hunter Biden's laptop is 'not part of Russian disinformation campaign'

US DNI John Ratcliffe said that there's no reason to believe that Hunter Biden's laptop and the information therein contained is part of a Russian disinformation campaign.