CIA’ s Hillary bomb shell
WASHINGTON: The top US intelligence agency has revealed bombshell allegations that former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton ordered a campaign in 2016 tying US President Donald Trump to Russianhackers.
Central Intelligence Agency national intelligence director John Ratcliffe revealed in a letter to Senate chairman Lindsey Graham on Wednesday (AEST) that Mrs Clinton “had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against Mr Trump by tying him to
President Vladimir Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee ”.
In 2016, the FBI opened an investigation into collusion between Mr Trump and Mr Put in that concluded last year with no evidence of a conspiracy between the two leaders. Mr Ratcliffe claimed in his letter that former CIA director John Brennan informed then president Barack Obama about the allegedploy.
The handwritten letter based on “Russian intelligence analysis” said Mrs Clinton was advised on using this political tactic by one of her foreign policy advisers to“vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services”.
The intelligence chief said the ploy was an attempt to distract the public from her own private email server scandal, which the Democrats had been embroiled in for months.
At the time of the TrumpRussia allegations, the Democratic Party’s presidential convention was coming under fire after leaked emails showed the party was biased against left-wing candidate Bernie Sanders.
Despite making strong claims about Mrs Clinton’ s tactics in his letter to Congress, Mr Ratcliff conceded he did not know if the claims were completely accurate.
“The IC does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication ,” he said.
“Additional declassification and public disclosure of related intelligence remains under consideration.”
Mr Trump’ s allies, including son Donald Trump Jnr and
White House press secretary Kay leighMc En any, have spoken out in support of the letter’ s shocking claims.
Senator Graham said: “This latest information shows there may have been a double standardbytheFBI.
“Whether these allegations are accurate is not the question. The question is did the FBI investigate the allegations against Clinton like they did Trump? If not, why not? If so, what was the scope of the investigation? If none, why was that?”shewrote.