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CNN
03-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
New CIA report criticizes investigation into Russia's support for Trump in 2016
A declassified CIA memo released Wednesday challenges the work intelligence agencies did to conclude that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election because it wanted Republican Donald Trump to win. The memo was written on the orders of CIA Director John Ratcliffe, a Trump loyalist who spoke out against the Russia investigation as a member of Congress. It finds fault with a 2017 intelligence assessment that concluded the Russian government, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, waged a covert influence campaign to help Trump win. It does not address that multiple investigations since then, including a report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020, reached the same conclusion about Russia's influence and motives. The eight-page document is part of an ongoing effort by Trump and close allies who now lead key government agencies to revisit the history of the long-concluded Russia investigation, which resulted in criminal indictments and shadowed most of his first term but also produced unresolved grievances and contributed to the Republican president's deep-rooted suspicions of the intelligence community. The report is also the latest effort by Ratcliffe to challenge the decision-making and actions of intelligence agencies during the course of the Russia investigation. A vocal Trump supporter in Congress who aggressively questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller during his 2019 testimony on Russian election interference, Ratcliffe later used his position as director of national intelligence to declassify Russian intelligence alleging damaging information about Democrats during the 2016 election even as he acknowledged that it might not be true. The new, 'lessons-learned' review ordered by Ratcliffe in May was meant to examine the tradecraft that went into the intelligence community's 2017 assessment on Russian interference and to scrutinize in particular the conclusion that Putin 'aspired' to help Trump win. The report cited several 'anomalies' that the authors wrote could have affected that conclusion, including a rushed timeline and a reliance on unconfirmed information, such as Democratic-funded opposition research about Trump's ties to Russia compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele. The report takes particular aim at the inclusion of a two-page summary of the Steele dossier, which included salacious and uncorroborated rumors about Trump's ties to Russia, in an annex of the intelligence community assessment. It said that decision, championed by the FBI, 'implicitly elevated unsubstantiated claims to the status of credible supporting evidence, compromising the analytical integrity of the judgment.' But even as Ratcliffe faulted top intelligence officials for a 'politically charged environment that triggered an atypical analytic process,' his agency's report does not directly contradict any previous intelligence. Russia's support for Trump has been outlined in a number of intelligence reports and the August 2020 conclusions of the Senate Intelligence Committee, then chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio, who now serves as Trump's secretary of state. It also was backed by Mueller, who in his 2019 report said that Russia interfered on Trump's behalf and that the campaign welcomed the aid, even if there was insufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy. 'This report doesn't change any of the underlying evidence — in fact it doesn't even address any of that evidence,' said Brian Taylor, a Russia expert who directs the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Syracuse University. Taylor suggested the report may have been intended to reinforce Trump's claims that investigations into his ties to Russia are part of a Democratic hoax. 'Good intelligence analysts will tell you their job is to speak truth to power,' Taylor said. 'If they tell the leader what he wants to hear, you often get flawed intelligence.' Intelligence agencies regularly perform after-action reports to learn from past operations and investigations, but it's uncommon for the evaluations to be declassified and released to the public. Ratcliffe has said he wants to release material on a number of topics of public debate and has already declassified records relating to the assassinations of President John Kennedy and his brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, as well as the origins of COVID-19.
Washington Post
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
New CIA report criticizes investigation into Russia's support for Trump in 2016
WASHINGTON — A declassified CIA memo released Wednesday challenges the work intelligence agencies did to conclude that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election because it wanted Republican Donald Trump to win. The memo was written on the orders of CIA Director John Ratcliffe, a Trump loyalist who spoke out against the Russia investigation as a member of Congress. It finds fault with a 2017 intelligence assessment that concluded the Russian government, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, waged a covert influence campaign to help Trump win. It does not address that multiple investigations since then, including a report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020, reached the same conclusion about Russia's influence and motives. The eight-page document is part of an ongoing effort by Trump and close allies who now lead key government agencies to revisit the history of the long-concluded Russia investigation, which resulted in criminal indictments and shadowed most of his first term but also produced unresolved grievances and contributed to the Republican president's deep-rooted suspicions of the intelligence community . The report is also the latest effort by Ratcliffe to challenge the decision-making and actions of intelligence agencies during the course of the Russia investigation. A vocal Trump supporter in Congress who aggressively questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller during his 2019 testimony on Russian election interference, Ratcliffe later used his position as director of national intelligence to declassify Russian intelligence alleging damaging information about Democrats during the 2016 election even as he acknowledged that it might not be true. The new, 'lessons-learned' review ordered by Ratcliffe in May was meant to examine the tradecraft that went into the intelligence community's 2017 assessment on Russian interference and to scrutinize in particular the conclusion that Putin 'aspired' to help Trump win. The report cited several 'anomalies' that the authors wrote could have affected that conclusion, including a rushed timeline and a reliance on unconfirmed information, such as Democratic-funded opposition research about Trump's ties to Russia compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele . The report takes particular aim at the inclusion of a two-page summary of the Steele dossier, which included salacious and uncorroborated rumors about Trump's ties to Russia, in an annex of the intelligence community assessment. It said that decision, championed by the FBI, 'implicitly elevated unsubstantiated claims to the status of credible supporting evidence, compromising the analytical integrity of the judgment.' But even as Ratcliffe faulted top intelligence officials for a 'politically charged environment that triggered an atypical analytic process,' his agency's report does not directly contradict any previous intelligence. Russia's support for Trump has been outlined in a number of intelligence reports and the August 2020 conclusions of the Senate Intelligence Committee, then chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio , who now serves as Trump's secretary of state. It also was backed by Mueller, who in his 2019 report said that Russia interfered on Trump's behalf and that the campaign welcomed the aid even if there was insufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy. 'This report doesn't change any of the underlying evidence — in fact it doesn't even address any of that evidence,' said Brian Taylor, a Russia expert who directs the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Syracuse University. Taylor suggested the report may have been intended to reinforce Trump's claims that investigations into his ties to Russia are part of a Democratic hoax. 'Good intelligence analysts will tell you their job is to speak truth to power,' Taylor said. 'If they tell the leader what he wants to hear, you often get flawed intelligence.' Intelligence agencies regularly perform after-action reports to learn from past operations and investigations, but it's uncommon for the evaluations to be declassified and released to the public. Ratcliffe has said he wants to release material on a number of topics of public debate and has already declassified records relating to the assassinations of President John Kennedy and his brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy , as well as the origins of COVID-19 .
New York Times
26-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Lawyer Who Pushed Bogus Trump Elector Scheme Is Disbarred in New York
Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who helped spearhead a brazen legal effort to use phony slates of pro-Trump electors to overturn the 2020 presidential election, was disbarred in New York on Thursday, cementing an indefinite ban issued last year. The decision by a New York State appellate court concluded a strange legal journey for a Harvard-educated lawyer who worked for former Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida and later evolved into a supporter of President Trump. In a seven-page opinion, the court cited a criminal racketeering case centered on the fake electors in Georgia, where in 2023 Mr. Chesebro pleaded guilty. The New York court said Thursday that Mr. Chesebro's 'criminal conduct — conspiracy to commit filing false documents — is unquestionably serious' and that he had undercut 'the very notion of our constitutional democracy that he, as an attorney, swore an oath to uphold.' Mr. Chesebro, 64, could not immediately be reached for comment, and lawyers who have represented him did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The decision came nearly eight months after Mr. Chesebro was indefinitely barred from practicing law in New York because of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The theory that Mr. Chesebro pushed centered on the certification process carried out on Jan. 6, 2021. He posited that Mike Pence, then the vice president, could count bogus slates of electors for Mr. Trump rather than the real ones from states that backed Joseph R. Biden Jr., or otherwise use the existence of the pro-Trump electors to delay the process. In 2022, before Mr. Chesebro was indicted, he told Talking Points Memo that it was 'the duty of any attorney to leave no stone unturned in examining the legal options that exist in a particular situation.' Other lawyers who supported Mr. Trump's efforts to reverse the 2020 election have also faced consequences. In 2023, Sidney K. Powell and Jenna Ellis, two members of Mr. Trump's legal team after the 2020 election, also pleaded guilty in election-interference cases in Georgia. Ms. Ellis's license to practice law in Colorado was suspended last year. Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who became Mr. Trump's legal browbeater, was barred from practicing in New York and in Washington, D.C. Mr. Chesebro was mentored at Harvard by Laurence H. Tribe, a leading liberal constitutional law scholar. With Mr. Tribe, Mr. Chesebro helped represent Mr. Gore, a Democrat, in the legal battle over the 2000 presidential election recount. Mr. Tribe said Thursday that Mr. Chesebro was particularly skilled at 'coming up with arguments — sometimes too clever.' 'He's one of the few students who seriously disappointed me,' Mr. Tribe said, adding: 'He's a very smart person who learned how to manipulate and abuse the tools that the law gave him. And it was proved now that he can't be trusted to use those tools at all.' Kitty Bennett contributed research.
Fox News
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Rosie O'Donnell reveals she was 'very depressed' and 'overdrinking' after first Trump win
Print Close By Marc Tamasco Published June 26, 2025 Rosie O'Donnell told former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo that she was "very depressed" and "overdrinking" following President Donald Trump's first election victory in 2016 on "The Chris Cuomo Project" podcast on Tuesday. O'Donnell revealed that she left the United States for Ireland out of a sense of "self-preservation" after Trump's second election victory, considering the difficulties she experienced after his first win in 2016. "During his first go-round, it was very difficult, and I got myself into some bad places. You know, I was very, very depressed. I was overeating. I was overdrinking … I was so depressed, Chris," she told the former cable host. ROSIE O'DONNELL WAS 'SHOCKED' THAT TRUMP'S ELECTION MADE ELLEN DEGENERES FLEE THE US She also shared that it hurt her heart to know that Americans "believed the lies" of Trump and, furthermore, that she worked in a business that "sells those lies for profit." Another reason O'Donnell listed for leaving the U.S. was to ensure that she could be a "good parent" to her 12-year-old child. "Coming to Ireland was totally a way to take care of myself and my non-binary autistic child, who's going to need services and help and counseling and all the things that he's [Trump is] threatening to cut in his horrible plan of the big, beautiful bill," she stated. CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE Later in their discussion, Cuomo recalled telling O'Donnell after Trump's first victory that "this is going to affect you a lot more than it's going to affect him," and asked how moving to Ireland has impacted her life. She told Cuomo that she enjoys the fact that people in Ireland typically don't approach celebrities the way they do in America, and also noted that she feels safe considering there's no "MAGA support" in the country. O'Donnell related an experience she had in Ireland where an older man bought her a pint of Guinness after she told him that she had left the U.S. because of Trump being elected. She contrasted this with a story from the U.S., where the entertainer and her child were allegedly mocked in a CVS store after Trump won the 2024 election. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "One cursed at us, and she's like, 'Why are they cursing at us?' And I'm like 'Honey you know the bad guy? They're all bad guys too,'" she detailed. Print Close URL
Daily Mail
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Former CNN star Don Lemon makes outrageous claims about Trump 2024 presidential victory
Former CNN host Don Lemon claimed 'something was off' in Donald Trump 's second presidential election victory, suggesting the now-president may have 'rigged' the election. Lemon's bold suggestion came during a Tuesday episode of his hit podcast, The Don Lemon Show, featuring comedian and provocateur Kathy Griffin. Griffin, 64, kicked off the controversial discussion about the 47th president's 2024 election victory suggesting Trump 'did not win in a free and fair election.' Before diving into her theory, the Emmy Award-winning actress prepped her comments by first asking if Lemon was ready for a 'tin foil hat' moment, to which he replied that he was. She then laid out her view, which included an Elon Musk aspect to it amid the tech CEO's war with Trump. 'Are you ready for a tin foil hat moment?' Griffin said. 'Yes,' Lemon, 59, replied. 'Okay, I'm just going to be bold and say this. And you know, you can take issue with this all you want,' she said. 'I do not think he won in a free and fair election.' After a dramatic pause from both of them, Griffin went on. 'Yeah, I said it. I'm Kathy Griffin and I do not think Trump won in a free and fair election,' she said. 'I believe there was tampering.' She then added that she didn't know any specifics about what may have been done, saying, 'I don't know if it was the Elon connection. I don't know if it was just a few good old boys in the South, and arguing that past claims of stolen elections by Trump and his supporters are evidence of their own guilt. 'I know I'll take heat for this and people are going to say I'm crazy,' Griffin continued. 'But I've been called crazy before, Don.' To her surprise, the former television host didn't push back. Instead, Lemon suggested she wasn't 'far off' and said he 'won't say he disagrees' with her shocking claim. 'I'd like to see the evidence,' Lemon added, before quickly qualifying, 'I think something was off.' Lemon then echoed one of Griffin's earlier points. 'As you said, every accusation is a confession' - a reference to past GOP claims of election fraud, without noting how similar claims from Trump and his allies were once widely condemned as threats to democracy. 'Vote for me and you won't have to vote again anymore. And also, um, you know, as you said, every accusation is a confession,' he said. Griffin wrapped the conversation with a wry prediction that she might face backlash. 'All right, well, let's leave our viewers with that, because we can't top that. I'm gonna get in trouble and I can't wait.' The candid conversation comes as the president and his 'first buddy' Musk air out their dirty laundry in a very public feud which has seen both men take to social media to criticize the other. In the past few days, Musk has grown increasingly critical of the 'big, beautiful bill' Republicans are trying to pass through Congress - arguing it reversed his work with DOGE - but on Thursday, he took aim at Trump himself. Trump took to Truth Social Thursday afternoon after first criticizing Musk in the Oval Office. 'Elon was "wearing thin," I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!' Trump wrote. The president then threatened to pull SpaceX and Tesla's government contracts. 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!' Trump wrote. Musk then taunted Trump to act. 'This just gets better and better,' he wrote. 'Go ahead, make my day …' Trump's swipes came after Musk said the Republican would have lost the 2024 election had it not been for the world's richest man's help. President Donald Trump (left) and Elon Musk (right) took their spectacular spat online Thursday after Trump was asked in the Oval Office about Musk's recent criticism of Republicans' 'big, beautiful bill' 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,' Musk claimed. 'Such ingratitude,' the billionaire added on X. Musk had publicly endorsed Trump on the heels of the July 13th assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania and poured $290 million of his fortune on the Republican's campaign. The billionaire also joined Trump on the campaign trail when he returned to the site of the Butler shooting in early October, a month before Election Day. During the transition, Trump announced that Musk would run the newly created Department of Government Efficiency or 'DOGE,' allowing the businessman to take a chainsaw to alleged waste, fraud and abuse. Those efforts didn't play well with the American public, with Musk formally out last week. Now the 53-year-old South African-born billionaire is asserting that he has more staying power in US politics than the 78-year-old president.
