Trump confirms authorization of covert CIA operations in Venezuela, won't say whether they can 'take out Maduro'



President Donald Trump may have resolved several bloody conflicts since retaking office, but he is clearly not averse to executing military strikes in the Western Hemisphere in the interest of protecting the American people.

The president announced on Sept. 2, for instance, that he had ordered a strike that killed 11 individuals on an apparent narcoterrorist drug boat that was headed to the United States. Following a series of similar attacks, Trump revealed on Tuesday that the U.S. military had conducted yet another lethal strike on an alleged narcoterrorist vessel, killing six men "just off the Coast of Venezuela."

'Venezuela is feeling heat.'

Trump, who has suggested that every such drug boat vaporized amounts to 25,000 American lives saved, confirmed on Wednesday that the U.S. will not limit its actions against Venezuelan cartels, which the administration does not distinguish from the socialist Maduro regime, to kinetic maritime strikes.

The president confirmed on Wednesday — months after the State Department increased the bounty for Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro to $50 million and weeks after White House special envoy Richard Grenell reportedly cut off all diplomatic outreach to Venezuela on the president's instruction — that he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert actions on the ground in Venezuela.

During a news conference in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said he made the authorization for two reasons: first because Venezuela has "emptied their prisons into the United States of America" and second because of the drugs Venezuelan terrorists smuggle into the U.S.

Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the New York Times reported earlier in the day that the authorization meant the CIA could execute lethal operations both in Venezuela — against Maduro and his regime — and elsewhere in the Caribbean, where Trump recently notified Congress that the U.S. is now engaged "in a non-international armed conflict" with several terrorist organizations.

Trump said of the efforts by South American cartels to smuggle drugs into the U.S., "We've almost totally stopped it by sea. Now we'll stop it by land."

RELATED: 'We will stop you cold': Trump announces successful strike against 'narcoterrorist' vessel

The U.S. Navy warship USS Sampson docked in Caribbean waters. Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images

When asked whether he was considering executing land-based military strikes on enemy cartels, Trump said, "I don't want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now because we've got the sea very well under control."

Three Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine USS Newport News, the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie, and the littoral combat ship USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul are presently operating in the region.

Maduro, whom the Trump administration has recognized as leader of the specially designated global terrorist organization Cartel de los Soles, claimed last month in response to the American military buildup in the region, "in response to maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum readiness to defend Venezuela."

Caracas has supposedly enlisted over 8 million Venezuelans as reservists.

When asked on Wednesday whether the CIA has "the authority to take out Maduro" — there is allegedly interest among a handful of senior officials in the Trump administration in orchestrating a regime change in Venezuela — the president said that was a "ridiculous question" for him to answer. Trump noted, however, that "Venezuela is feeling heat."

Maduro, whose alleged electoral victories in 2018 and 2024 are not recognized by the U.S., stated in response to Trump's remarks on Wednesday, "No to regime change that reminds us of the failed wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. … No to coups d’état carried out by the CIA."

Blaze News has reached out to the White House for comment.

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A top Russiagate CIA vet just lost her clearance after Blaze News exposed her



A deep-state agent exposed as an imposter by Blaze News just had her security clearance revoked.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released newly declassified documents last month exposing how the Obama administration appeared to manufacture the Russia hoax — a well-coordinated and deceptive effort that the DNI has characterized as a "treasonous conspiracy."

Elements of the deep state quickly went into damage control.

While ex-CIA Director John Brennan played the victim on cable news and former DNI James Clapper lawyered up, Susan Miller, an ex-spy who was with the CIA for nearly 40 years, went on a media tour to frame Gabbard as a liar and to deny the new evidence.

'Susan Miller was not an author of the 2017 ICA.'

Miller, a good friend of former Obama official and Democrat megadonor Caroline Kennedy, told NBC News, for instance, that "the director of national intelligence and the White House are lying, again."

Miller's Russia hoax-centered attacks and refutations were taken seriously by the liberal media on the basis of the claim that she was an author of the the now-infamous 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment and had critical insights into its development.

RELATED: Ex-CIA counterintelligence chief Susan Miller's Russia hoax denials reek of desperation

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

CNN identified Miller as "an author of the agency’s 2017 intelligence report on Russian election meddling." NBC News claimed she "helped oversee the 2017 intelligence assessment on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election." A Mustang News puff piece said that "she authored the initial report proving the Russians interfered in the 2016 election in an attempt to sway the presidential election in Donald Trump’s favor."

Miller was more than happy to present as an integral part of the team behind the ICA, telling the "SpyTalk" podcast that she "headed up the report team" that compiled the assessment.

Blaze News revealed, however, that much like the Russia collusion narrative, Miller's leadership role in the 2017 ICA was a deep-state fiction.

A source familiar with the assessment told Blaze News that "Susan Miller was not an author of the 2017 ICA."

A senior intelligence official also confirmed to investigative journalist Matt Taibbi's Racket News, "Not an author. Not involved."

RELATED: Tulsi Gabbard drops declassified top-secret document implicating James Clapper in Russiagate

Photo by Dennis Brack/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Another person familiar with the investigation noted, "She’s not the author of the ICA ... she wasn’t leading this effort. So it’s just totally bizarre that she claims the opposite."

Miller's attempt to lay claim to the ICA is particularly strange given the mounting evidence to suggest that it was patchwork of lies.

'That's not even a non-denial denial.'

The CIA's June review of the ICA found that there were "multiple procedural anomalies" in the production of the Obama-ordered January 2017 assessment, including "a highly compressed production timeline, stringent compartmentation, and excessive involvement of agency heads."

The newly declassified House Intelligence Committee majority staff report released by Gabbard last month further indicated that the ICA was a Brennan-masterminded fiction comprising misquotes, unreliable reports, lies of omission, and straight-out falsehoods.

Top-secret emails released by Gabbard this week show not only the apparent level of coordination by top Obama officials on the ICA but their apparent willingness to "compromise" on "normal modalities."

When pressed about her actual role on the ICA, Miller told Blaze News, "My team and I at CIA wrote a CIA analysis about Russian influence on the election."

"This was a CIA report, briefed to Trump by our then-director, and by me to the Senate and congressional intelligence committees. The DNI used that report as the basis for the ICA," continued Miller. "I indeed did not write the ICA, but the ODNI used my report as the basis for theirs."

Taibbi said of Miller's response, "That's not even a non-denial denial. It's an oops."

Miller has lost a great deal more than credibility.

Two Trump administration officials said to be familiar with the matter told the Federalist that Miller's security clearance has been terminated, the outlet reported Thursday.

A senior administration official told the Federalist, "Russian hoaxers sought to undermine President Trump’s entire first term in office. A woman involved in the Russia hoax cannot be trusted with a security clearance. Therefore, it has been revoked."

Miller previously boasted about having "full clearance" on her LinkedIn page. The page was recently deleted.

"This woman totally shouldn’t hold a high-level security clearance after pushing the Russia hoax. All she did was lie to the American people to hurt Trump," a senior Pentagon official told the Federalist.

Despite her recent efforts to deceive the American public, the International Spy Museum is apparently still set to give Miller its Hidden Hero Award in November.

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Liberal media is dead silent about the damning revelations in the declassified Durham annex



CIA Director John Ratcliffe teased on Sunday the release of previously classified intelligence pertaining to a "Hillary Clinton plan to falsely accuse Donald Trump of Russian collusion."

On Thursday, Ratcliffe delivered the goods, providing Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and the public by extension with the appendix to the 2023 Durham report concerning the origins of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation into bogus Trump-Russia collusion allegations.

At the time of publication, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, NBC News, and other longtime purveyors of the Russian collusion hoax had apparently not yet touched the story, prompting journalist Glenn Greenwald to conclude, "The corporate media will not report on these new disclosures showing the CIA/FBI/Hillary Russiagate fraud because they were its leading perpetrators (they gave themselves Pulitzers for it)."

"They have no shame," responded Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University.

The appendix, commonly referred to as the Durham annex, provides additional insights both into the FBI's willful failure under former Director James Comey to investigate credible intelligence implicating the Clinton campaign in the creation of the Russian collusion hoax and into the bureau's subsequent cover-up.

The annex also appears to reveal:

  • Intelligence indicating that "the Clinton staff, with support from special services, is preparing scandalous revelations of business relations between Trump and the 'Russian Mafia'";
  • The expectation by Leonard Benardo of George Soros' Open Society Foundations — who was apparently in touch with Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the head of the Democratic National Committee — that the FBI would play along and ultimately "put more oil into the fire";
  • Benardo's suggestion that the bogus narrative could be laundered to the media absent "direct evidence" via the companies CrowdStrike and ThreatConnect;
  • Intelligence indicating Hillary Clinton personally signed off on the collusion narrative;
  • The FBI's understanding that the intelligence concerning the Clinton plan was credible; and
  • The FBI's decision to silo the information about the Clinton plan.
— (@)

Blaze News has reached out to Schultz and to Obama's office for comment.

When pressed for comment about the Durham annex and its contents, the White House referred Blaze News to the FBI, which did not respond by deadline.

RELATED: Ratcliffe releases damning Durham annex. Here's what it reveals about Obama-Clinton Russia collusion hoax.

Photo (left): Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images ; Photo (right): Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was among those whose lives were turned upside down by Crossfire Hurricane — an investigation that special counsel John Durham revealed was based on "raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence" and reliant on the Clinton campaign-funded Steele dossier.

"The conclusion of the declassified Durham index today: George Soros' team, along with Clinton, Obama and Brennan knew the whole Clinton plan for Russiagate four days before FBI opened up probe," Papadopoulos noted on X. "The FBI happily did their dirty work for them. And this is still the beginning of declass."

Grassley told Fox News shortly after publishing the annex that it's "evidence of the great depth that the deep state will go to to cover up weaponization that was going on in the FBI and the executive branch of government generally under the Obama administration."

"We know that ... the Steele dossier, paid for by the Democrats and the Clinton campaign — that it was all an effort of total distraction and to make it look like Russia was playing a very major role in helping Trump to be elected, and now we know none of that was true," Grassley added. "Now with this Durham report annex out, it finally proves that the FBI was covering up."

"The smoking gun kind of dovetails with things that Tulsi Gabbard has put out in the recent two weeks and things we had with the Crossfire Hurricane annex that I released a couple weeks ago," the senator added.

RELATED: Obama and Brennan set to reap the whirlwind: Gabbard refers evidence of 'years-long coup' to DOJ for criminal probe

Photo (left): Kevin Dietsch/Getty Image; Photo (right): Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Ratcliffe said in a statement that the declassified annex shows "the false Trump-Russia collusion narrative for what it was — a coordinated plan to prevent and destroy Donald Trump’s presidency."

"The American people deserve the full, unfiltered truth about the Russia collusion hoax and the political abuse of our justice system it exposed," FBI Director Kash Patel said. "Today’s declassification and release of documents tied to the Durham report is another step toward that accountability. The FBI will continue working tirelessly with our federal partners at DOJ, CIA, and more to uncover the facts that should have been brought to light years ago."

While some of the bureau's baggage is now out in the open, former FBI special agent Steve Friend suggested to Blaze News that the FBI is still replete with bad actors.

When asked whether some of the same personalities who sat on the Russian collusion origins are still at the bureau, Friend said, "I know there are people that are still there and have not been flushed out — and have actually been promoted."

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Ratcliffe releases damning Durham annex. Here's what it reveals about Obama-Clinton Russia collusion hoax.



As promised, CIA Director John Ratcliffe has declassified the appendix from the 2023 Durham report and provided the documents to Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). The contents are damning.

The Department of Justice authorized federal prosecutor John Durham in 2019 to explore the origins of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI's investigation into whether President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign conspired with Russia to win the presidential election — which the intelligence community knew full well did not occur.

The result was a 306-page unclassified report that exposed the bureau's investigation as an Obama administration hatchet job launched on the basis of "raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence," willfully blind to contradictory information, and conducted without basic due diligence.

In addition to exposing misconduct — how an FBI attorney apparently altered an email in support of a FISA renewal request targeting a Trump campaign adviser — and highlighting how the bureau took a far different approach when tackling failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's alleged pay-to-play scheme, Durham detailed the FBI's outsized reliance on a foreign-sourced political opposition research report paid for in part by the Clinton campaign, the contents of which the bureau knew to be unreliable.

There was more to Durham's report than what was originally made publicly available: namely a 29-page classified appendix that provided insights into the genesis of the Russia collusion hoax.

That appendix, released on Thursday by Grassley, provides additional insights into the FBI's willful failure under former Director James Comey to investigate intelligence indicating that the Clinton campaign manufactured the Russia collusion hoax out of whole cloth.

The so-called Durham annex also provides strong indications that when confronted with evidence of the Clinton campaign plan, the FBI ultimately decided not only to play along but to weaponize the false narrative against Trump.

— (@)

According to the Durham annex, the Obama administration received intelligence from a source via two separate memos — one in January 2016 and the other in March 2016 — describing confidential conversations between then-Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and two individuals at George Soros' Open Society Foundations, Leonard Benardo and Jeffrey Goldstein.

'The FBI will put more oil into the fire.'

Both memos referred to former President Barack Obama's intention and alleged efforts to torpedo the FBI's probe into Clinton's use of a private email server and mishandling of highly classified information while secretary of state.

RELATED: Ex-CIA counterintelligence chief Susan Miller's Russia hoax denials reek of desperation

Photo by Pete Souza/The White House via Getty Images

The March memo revealed, however, that Democrats weren't just circling the wagons but going on offense, noting that the Democratic Party's "opposition is focused on discrediting Trump through debates and propaganda activities" and that "the Clinton staff, with support from special services, is preparing scandalous revelations of business relations between Trump and the 'Russian Mafia.'"

The annex indicated that FBI analysts suspected that "special services" was a reference "to the FBI and the CIA or more broadly to the intelligence and law enforcement communities" and/or to "Trump dossier author Christopher Steele."

The Durham annex noted further that in the summer of 2016, the FBI received additional information regarding the alleged Clinton campaign plan to smear Trump, falsely link him to Russia, then have the deep state carry the ball down the field.

Among the information received was an email purportedly written by Leonard Benardo on July 27, 2016, which stated in part:

[Hillary Rodham Clinton] approved [Campaign Advisor Julie’s] idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections. That should distract people from her own missing email, especially if the affair goes to the Olympic level. The point is making the Russian play a U.S. domestic issue. Say something like a critical infrastructure threat for the election to feel menace since bout POTUS and VPOTUS have acknowledged the fact IC would speed up searching for evidence that is regrettable still unavailable.

In a separate email attributed to Benardo, the author suggested that with regard to the "long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump," "the FBI will put more oil into the fire."

'History will show that the Obama and Biden administration’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies were weaponized against President Trump.'

The officers and analysts whom Durham interviewed informed the special counsel that their best assessment was that this and other emails were likely authentic.

In 2017, the CIA "prepared a written assessment of the authenticity and veracity of the above-referenced intelligence. The CIA stated that it did not assess that the above [redacted] memoranda, or [redacted] hacked U.S. communications, to be the product of Russian fabrications," according to the annex.

RELATED: Declassified report: Obama’s FBI failed to search key evidence in Clinton email probe

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Despite the apparent authenticity of these letters and credibility of the corresponding intelligence, the Durham report indicated that there was no evidence that the FBI disclosed the contents of the Clinton plan intelligence to the attorneys working on the FISA matters related to Crossfire Hurricane, to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or to numerous individuals working on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

Although parties directly relevant to the investigation were kept in the dark, the Durham annex indicated that then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed Obama, VP Joe Biden, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Comey, and other top Obama officials on the matter.

"Based on the Durham annex, the Obama FBI failed to adequately review and investigate intelligence reports showing the Clinton campaign may have been ginning up the fake Trump-Russia narrative for Clinton’s political gain, which was ultimately done through the Steele dossier and other means," stated Grassley.

"These intelligence reports and related records, whether true or false, were buried for years. History will show that the Obama and Biden administration’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies were weaponized against President Trump," continued Grassley. "This political weaponization has caused critical damage to our institutions and is one of the biggest political scandals and cover-ups in American history. The new Trump administration has a tremendous responsibility to the American people to fix the damage done and do so with maximum speed and transparency."

This story may be updated with additional insights from the Durham annex.

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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.

— (@)

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."

RELATED: Deep-staters threaten to use color revolution tactics against Trump admin: Report

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."

RELATED: Vindicated? Patel's FBI uncovers apparent Chinese communist plot to rig 2020 mail-in vote for Biden

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.