New CIA report criticizes investigation into Russia’s support for Trump in 2016

By DAVID KLEPPER and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON AP A declassified CIA memo issued Wednesday challenges the work intelligence agencies did to conclude that Russia interfered in the presidential voting because it craved 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 inquiry as a member of Congress It finds fault with a intelligence assessment that concluded the Russian governing body 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 description from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee in 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 leadership agencies to revisit the history of the long-concluded Russia probe which resulted in criminal indictments and shadowed majority of his first term but also produced unresolved grievances and contributed to the Republican president s deep-rooted suspicions of the intelligence area The document is also the latest effort by Ratcliffe to challenge the decision-making and actions of intelligence agencies during the module of the Russia inquiry A vocal Trump supporter in Congress who aggressively questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller during his testimony on Russian referendum interference Ratcliffe later used his position as director of national intelligence to declassify Russian intelligence alleging damaging information about Democrats during the electoral process 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 public s assessment on Russian interference and to scrutinize in particular the conclusion that Putin aspired to help Trump win The description 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 assessment 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 society assessment It reported that decision championed by the FBI implicitly elevated unsubstantiated proposes to the status of credible supporting evidence compromising the analytical integrity of the judgment But even as Ratcliffe faulted top intelligence agents for a politically charged habitat that triggered an atypical analytic process his agency s review does not directly contradict any previous intelligence Russia s encouragement for Trump has been outlined in a number of intelligence reports and the August 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 overview disclosed 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 Related Articles Trump to meet at White House with American hostage freed from Gaza Florida s Alligator Alcatraz detention center is set to receive its first group of immigrants FDA vaccine official restricted COVID vaccine approvals against the advice of agency staff Columbia University participant material stolen by politically motivated hacker university says Groups sue to stop Trump administration from using what they call unconstitutional tactics in raids This review doesn t change any of the underlying evidence in fact it doesn t even address any of that evidence declared Brian Taylor a Russia expert who directs the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Syracuse University Taylor suggested the record may have been intended to reinforce Trump s indicates 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 mentioned 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 distributed to the society Ratcliffe has noted he wants to release material on a number of topics of residents 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-