The Justice Department subpoenaed former FBI Director James Comey over his role in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference. Issued last week by the Southern District of Florida, it escalates probes into Comey and ex-CIA Director John Brennan for potential wrongdoing, false statements, and includes the discredited Steele dossier despite the CIA viewing it as an “internet rumor.”
For context, the rushed ICA contradicted earlier assessments, finding no significant Russian cyber impact on the 2016 vote and showing “procedural anomalies” per a review. Officials called it politicized “manufactured” intelligence used against Trump. Sources termed interactions a “conspiracy.”
A review of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) noted major “procedural anomalies,” and noted that the “decision by agency heads to include the Steele Dossier in the ICA ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.”
Apparently, then-DNI James Clapper had official talking points that stated in clear terms that “Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the U.S. presidential election outcome.”
A declassified Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) dated Dec. 8, 2016, prepared for Obama, read, “We assess that Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure.”
The same document added, “Russian Government-affiliated actors most likely compromised an Illinois voter registration database and unsuccessfully attempted the same in other states,” adding that it was “highly unlikely” the effort “would have resulted in altering any state’s official vote result.”
“Criminal activity also failed to reach the scale and sophistication necessary to change election outcomes,” the document explained, “[They] probably were intended to cause psychological effects, such as undermining the credibility of the election process and candidates.”
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In conclusion, the PDB asserted that hackers, “tried to steal data and to interrupt election processes by targeting election infrastructure, but these actions did not achieve a notable disruptive effect,” and an investigation “should not go forward until the FBI” had shared its “concerns.”
A declassified White House Situation Room meeting record read that the meeting had “agreed to recommend sanctioning of certain members of the Russian military intelligence and foreign intelligence chains of command responsible for cyber operations as a response to cyber activity that attempted to influence or interfere with U.S. elections, if such activity meets the requirements.”
Another declasified email, from Clapper’s executive assistant and ODNI tasking record asked, “per the president’s request” for a summary of the “tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election. ODNI will lead this effort with participation from CIA, FBI, NSA, and DHS.”
An intelligence official, quoted by Fox News, said, “The unpublished December PDB stated clearly that Russia ‘did not impact’ the election through cyber hacks on the election.” The same source said that the investigation was “politicized” because it “suppressed intelligence from before and after the election showing Russia lacked intent and capability to hack the 2016 election.”
He also added that the Democrats, “deceived the American public ‘by claiming the IC made no assessment on the ‘impact’ of Russian activities,’ when the intelligence community ‘did, in fact, assess for impact,'” adding, “Russia was responsible for leaking data from the DNC and DCCC.”
Featured image: By Pete Souza – P061216PS-0013, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49408640