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CIA review of 2016 Russia election probe finds no major flaws

CIA review of 2016 Russia election probe finds no major flaws

Politico18 hours ago
'The issues that are highlighted in this report are also extremely normal,' said Harding, now director of the Intelligence, National Security and Technology program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'It's a luxury when an analyst does not have a compressed time frame.'
While such reviews are not uncommon, it is rare for them to be released to the public.
'The only reason why you would be putting this out into the public domain is for political reasons,' said a former CIA analyst who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the intelligence process.
A review of the 2017 assessment was not conducted until today because 'it was too politically sensitive,' the CIA review read.
After the review was released, Ratcliffe posted on X a characterization of the report that appeared to deviate from its findings.
'All the world can now see the truth: Brennan, Clapper and Comey manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump,' he wrote in one post. In a second, he said that the 2016 assessment was produced in a process that was 'atypical & corrupt.'
Investigations into the Kremlin's efforts to sway the 2016 presidential election and the Trump campaign's contacts with Russian officials dominated much of the president's first term in office.
A special counsel's investigation led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller found no evidence that the Trump campaign sought to collude with that effort.
Trump and his allies have long raged against the investigations, dismissing them as politically motivated witch hunts.
The president has regularly lashed out at the outspoken former CIA Director John Brennan, who led the agency as it probed Moscow's interference efforts, revoking his security clearance in 2018 in an apparent act of revenge.
Brennan did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
A major flashpoint for Trump and other critics of the report was the inclusion of the Steele dossier in the annex of the 2016 intelligence community assessment — an unsubstantiated and now largely debunked report that suggested Trump had extensive entanglements with the Russians.
In an extensive review of the 2016 assessment, conducted as part of its wide-ranging Russia investigation, the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020 found no 'significant analytic tradecraft issues' with U.S. spy agencies' work.
The oversight panel, which was headed at the time by Republican Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC.), also dedicated 'additional attention' to the assessment that Putin 'aspired' to help Trump.
The CIA and FBI had 'high confidence' Putin aspired to help Trump, while the NSA only had 'moderate' confidence in that conclusion. The public version of the assessment released in 2017 referenced all of those judgements.
The Senate panel, for its part, concluded the agencies' disagreement was 'reasonable, transparent, and openly debated.' The fourth volume of their review, which spanned more than 150 pages alone, further stated that all witnesses interviewed by the committee saw 'no attempts or pressure to politicize the findings.'
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Google Might Be Next to Settle With Trump
Google Might Be Next to Settle With Trump

Atlantic

time6 minutes ago

  • Atlantic

Google Might Be Next to Settle With Trump

Of all the titans of social media, Google CEO Sundar Pichai tried to keep the groveling to a minimum after Donald Trump won last year. He did not, like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, go on podcasts to praise the benefits of 'masculine energy' or hire the new president's close friend, the UFC boss Dana White, to his board of directors. He did not, like X owner Elon Musk, go to work in the White House or publicly declare his straight-man 'love' for Trump. Unlike TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Pichai never pushed a notification to all app users (with an exclamation point!) thanking Trump for his efforts. There was instead a brief visit to Mar-a-Lago, the requisite $1 million Google donation to Trump's inaugural fund, and the stoic appearance as a background prop during the ceremony in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. Even Pichai's statement that day read dutiful and dry: 'We look forward to working with you to usher in a new era of technology + AI innovation that will benefit all Americans.' But the man who runs YouTube may soon get another opportunity to demonstrate his fealty. Trump had sued Zuckerberg, Pichai, and the former CEO of Twitter (which Musk later purchased and renamed X) in 2021 for restricting his accounts after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The president alleged that the companies and executives had illegally censored him at the urging of U.S. political leaders, violating his First Amendment rights. It was an ironic argument from a politician who likes to settle political grudges with governmental threats. But it was an effective one: During their postelection courtships of Trump, Zuckerberg settled his case with a payment of $25 million, mostly to Trump's presidential-library fund, and Musk followed with $10 million more. Now it may be Pichai's turn. Lawyers for President Trump and Pichai have begun 'productive discussions' about the next steps of the case against YouTube, 'with additional discussions anticipated in the near future,' according to briefs filed in a San Francisco federal court shortly after Memorial Day that appear to have escaped public notice. The parties have asked the judge to give them until September 2 to come to an agreement on a path forward. 'I can't talk about that,' John Cole, a lawyer in the case for Trump, told me when I called to ask about settlement talks. José Castañeda, a spokesperson for Google, also declined to comment. The fact that the talks are happening at all says more about Trump's remarkable use of presidential power than his legal prowess or the merits of his case. In 2022, a federal district court dismissed Trump's case against X after concluding that Trump had failed to 'plausibly allege' that Twitter's decision to ban his account was directed by the government. Trump's case against YouTube was put on hold while Trump appealed the X case to the Ninth Circuit, which appeared likely to rule against Trump again. But Musk's decision to settle his case while he was working alongside Trump in the White House prevented the appeals court from issuing a decision, and effectively reopened the YouTube case this spring. That has left Pichai with a difficult choice: Continue with a legal fight he may win on the merits and risk the wrath of the president of the United States, or agree to give some money to Trump's presidential library and move on. The whole situation is head-spinning: Trump has shown that he can successfully use the powers of his elected office to threaten private companies into settling civil suits even when the cases are based on the allegation that those same companies broke the law by caving to the demands of politicians like him. 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I was in the room that day, and I asked Trump how he squared that concern with his decision to entertain changing Harvard University's tax status because he did not like its diversity policies and its handling of on-campus protests. He quickly pivoted. 'Because I think Harvard is a disgrace. I think what they did was a disgrace,' he said. Harvard, of course, has asked a court to rule that Trump's various punishments violate the First Amendment. This week's settlement by Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News, offers further evidence of his mindset. Before the 2024 election, Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS Broadcasting Inc., alleging that the network had violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by choosing to air two different edits, on two different shows, of Vice President Kamala Harris's answer to a question. Such editing is a routine part of political journalism, which regularly shortens quotes and tapes for brevity. Trump argued that the version that aired for a larger audience on 60 Minutes made Harris look deceptively better because it left out some of her confusing stammering. Rather than wait for the courts to address the merits of his claim, he applied his own pressure once he regained government power. Trump's new chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, reopened a closed complaint alleging that the editing amounted to 'news distortion.' Carr had previously said that the claim should be considered when the FCC weighed approval of the proposed merger of Paramount Global and its new investor, Skydance. Trump egged Carr on. In a post complaining about a different 60 Minutes segment in April, Trump wrote that he hoped Carr would 'impose the maximum fines and punishment' on CBS. Paramount agreed Tuesday to give $16 million to Trump's presidential library to settle the Harris-interview case. Trump's presidential-library foundation, which incorporated in Florida in May, has not yet disclosed its plans for what to do with all the settlement money. Trump's son Eric Trump, his son-in-law Michael Boulos, and an attorney for the Trump Organization, James Kiley, have been named the initial trustees. All the while, the Trump administration has continued to ceremoniously embrace the First Amendment rights of American companies and citizens. On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order called Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship, which condemned the Biden administration for 'exerting substantial coercive pressure' on social-media companies to moderate posts on their sites. Trump declared that it was now the policy of the United States to 'ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.' 'There is a new sheriff in town,' Vice President J. D. Vance declared on February 14 in Munich, Germany. 'And under Donald Trump's leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer them in the public square, agree or disagree.' Vance didn't mention that just three days earlier, Leavitt had told an Associated Press reporter that, at Trump's direction, the AP would lose its permanent spot in the White House press pool, barring it from the Oval Office and Air Force One, until the wire service started referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the ' Gulf of America.' A district-court judge ruled that this decision violated the First Amendment rights of the AP, though the ruling was later paused by an appellate court after the White House imposed broader changes on how the pool system is organized. The AP, which has not bowed to Trump's demands and has yet to regain its spot, has since been let into the pool on occasion and continues to have access to White House briefings. The courts have not been impressed by such misdirection. Just three months after Trump's executive order barring unconstitutional abridgement of free speech, D.C. federal district Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that Trump had committed that exact offense. At issue was a March 6 executive order, 14230, that declared that employees of the law firm Perkins Coie should be limited from entering federal buildings, interacting with federal employees, or holding security clearances because of the firm's 'dishonest and dangerous' activity, including the decision to represent Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign and to promote diversity in its hiring practices. Three other federal judges have since thrown out Trump executive orders targeting three more law firms on the same grounds. 'In a cringe-worthy twist on the theatrical phrase 'Let's kill all the lawyers,' EO 14230 takes the approach of 'Let's kill the lawyers I don't like,' sending the clear message: lawyers must stick to the party line, or else,' Judge Howell explained while voiding the executive order. Trump appealed Howell's ruling this week to the D.C. Circuit. Should Pichai choose to fight it out in court with Trump, he would quite possibly get a favorable ruling. When the Ninth Circuit heard the X case in 2023, two of the three judges on the panel questioned the evidence that Trump had gathered to suggest that his ban from Twitter had been caused by government pressure. As in the YouTube case, Trump's lawyers had presented only general comments from public officials about the need for social-media companies to increase moderation, including from members of the House and Senate, then-candidates Joe Biden and Harris, and former first lady Michelle Obama. 'Why do statements from, let's say, four senators at a committee hearing all of a sudden commit all of the power of the federal government to create state action here?' Ninth Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, an appointee of President George W. Bush, asked during oral arguments in the case. 'I don't know of any case that stands for that proposition.' The problem for Pichai is different, of course, as it was for Zuckerberg, Musk, and Paramount—and will be for anyone else Trump targets. Google could end up losing more by prevailing in court than it will win by conceding the case and making an eight-figure donation to Trump's presidential library.

DNC chair says 'bulls---' on air as Dem frustrations over Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' mount
DNC chair says 'bulls---' on air as Dem frustrations over Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' mount

Fox News

time7 minutes ago

  • Fox News

DNC chair says 'bulls---' on air as Dem frustrations over Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' mount

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee let an expletive slip on air when describing President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" on Thursday. Ken Martin, who was elected DNC chair earlier this year, called Trump's bill "bulls---" during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." Network censors didn't catch the word as he said it, so it came out clearly during the broadcast. "Don't make no mistake about it. The Democratic Party, we're here to fight. We're here to win, and we're here to make sure that we actually give the American people a sense that their better days are ahead of them, and that this bulls--- bill that they see right now in Congress, that's not going to happen if you put Democrats back in power." Martin made the statements ahead of the final congressional vote on Trump's $3.3 trillion government spending package. At the time, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., had launched into what would be a multi-hour speech on the House floor to delay the vote. Final passage of the bill came on Thursday afternoon after Jeffries yielded the floor. During his TV appearance, Martin savaged Trump's bill and the Republican lawmakers who supported it, calling their actions a "betrayal." "This is one of the biggest betrayals we've seen in recent history, and we're going to remind voters next year – trust me – this is not going to go well for Republicans. And someone said this earlier, they are handing us a gift on a silver platter," he said, noting the potential political capital the Democratic Party could get with the bill's passage. He continued, arguing that the bill will ultimately "be disastrous for the American people, who are – their lives are going to be shattered and communities are going to be afflicted with a lot of pain over the coming years because of this bill." As he went on, Martin mentioned how his party was galvanized in opposition to the bill and will succeed in the midterm elections against the GOP and Trump administration, which he described as an "authoritarian regime" which has "an unimpeded path to do whatever the hell they want to inflict more pain and damage in this country." NBC News correspondent Ali Vitali appeared skeptical of Martin's confidence in the upcoming elections, noting how Democratic figures thought Trump was a "gift" to the party in 2016 until former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential loss.

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