Brennan notes show alleged Clinton plan to tie Trump to Russia
Former Deputy Assistant Attorneys General John Yoo and Harry Litman debate on âFox News @ Night.â
Intelligence agency officials like former CIA Director John Brennan must be held accountable for their role in advancing allegations about President Donald Trumpâs connections with Russia during the 2016 election, according to the White House.
âPresident Trump was right â again,â White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News Digital. âThose who engaged in this political scandal must be held accountable for the fraud they committed against President Trump and the lies they told to the American people.â

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News intelligence officials from the Obama administration must be held accountable for their role in peddling the 2016 Russia hoax. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Leavittâs comments come after a new lessons-learned review that CIA Director John Ratcliffe declassified Wednesday determined that the CIA, FBI and National Security Agencyâs Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) examining Russiaâs interference in the 2016 presidential election deviated from intelligence standards that led to some âprocedural anomalies.â
The review determined that the âdecision 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.â
The âSteele dossier,â composed by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele as part of opposition research on Trump during the 2016 campaign, featured salacious material and unfounded allegations about Trumpâs connections to Russia. Trump has denied the allegations included in the document.

Then-CIA Director John Brennan speaks during the CIAâs third conference on national security at George Washington University, September 20, 2016, in Washington, D.C.
Specifically, the CIAâs new review found that the CIAâs deputy director for analysis said in a December 2016 email to Brennan that including the dossier in any capacity jeopardized âthe credibility of the entire paper.â
âDespite these objections, Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness,â the new review stated. âWhen confronted with specific flaws in the Dossier by the two mission center leaders â one with extensive operational experience and the other with a strong analytic background â he appeared more swayed by the Dossierâs general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns. Brennan ultimately formalized his position in writing, stating that âmy bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.ââ
Brennan served as director of the CIA from March 2013 to January 2017 under the Obama administration.
Brennan could not be reached for comment by Fox News Digital.
Likewise, the review said Brennan had sent a note to intelligence community analysts one day before their only session coordinating on the ICA that he had met with then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-FBI Director James Comey.Â
In that message, Brennan told the CIA workforce that âthere is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our recent Presidential election.â
Fox Newsâ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.Â

CIA Director John Brennan participates in a session at the third annual Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington, Sept. 8, 2016.



