Amid the breaking revelations detailing the scheming to create Russiagate and to deploy it to torpedo U.S.-Russia collaboration, along come John Brennan and James Clapper, the dynamic duo of Obama-era spookery, penning a New York Times op-ed that’s equal parts sermonizing and selective amnesia.
Titled “Let’s Set the Record Straight on Russia and 2016,” it’s a 1,000-word screed where these two sanctimonious spymasters clutch their pearls over Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe daring to suggest that the Obama administration might have—gasp!—politicized intelligence. Because if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that Brennan and Clapper are the epitome of apolitical purity, right?
First off, they’re outraged that Gabbard and Ratcliffe claim the Obama crew cooked up a “treasonous conspiracy” to kneecap Trump with phony Russia intel. “Patently false,” they huff, citing the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) as holy writ.
But in July, Gabbard declassified a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence report that calls the ICA a “manufactured” hoax, alleging Obama himself directed its creation to smear Trump after his surprise win.
But wait, there’s more! They devote paragraphs to debunking three “misrepresentations,” starting with the infamous Steele Dossier—that salacious stack of hogwash from a British “ex"-spy that was never validated. The British-created Steele Dossier played a central role in the initiation of the Russiagate investigations, but Brennan and Clapper swear it was not “not used as a source or taken into account for any … analysis or conclusions.”
