By Isabella Torregiani
2:43pm PDT, Jul 3, 2025
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In 2016, an investigation under former President
Barack Obama's administration concluded Russia interfered in the U.S. election to help
Donald Trump win. Now, a newly released CIA report is challenging that assessment, alleging it was compromised by former CIA Director
John Brennan, FBI Director
James Comey and Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper, who were reportedly "excessively involved" in the process.
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The "Tradecraft Review of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment [ICA] on Russian Election Interference" was completed by agents at the CIA's Directorate of Analysis this past May. The report reveals that on December 6, 2016, just six weeks before the end of his presidency, Barack Obama ordered the review, which concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin "aspired" to help Donald Trump secure the election. "The rushed timeline to publish both classified and unclassified versions before the presidential transition raised questions about a potential political motive behind the White House tasking and timeline," the CIA noted. It also found that John Brennan directed the compilation of the ICA in a way that was "highly unusual in both scope and intensity" and that his involvement "risked stifling analytic debate."
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"This was [Barack] Obama, [James] Comey, [James] Clapper and [John] Brennan deciding, 'We're going to screw Trump,'" said CIA Director John Ratcliffe. "It was, 'We're going to create this and put the imprimatur of an IC assessment in a way that nobody can question it.' They stamped it as Russian collusion and then classified it so nobody could see it." The review also points to several flaws in how the ICA was developed. Drafts were only distributed as hard copies, requiring hand delivery between agencies. "The pressing timeline and limitations of hardcopy review likely biased the overall review process," the report stated.
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The document criticizes the inclusion of the Steele dossier, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, which contained unverified claims that Russia had compromising blackmail material on Donald Trump. Despite pushback from multiple CIA leaders and the Russia mission center, John Brennan insisted the dossier be included. "CIA's Deputy Director for Analysis (DDA) warned in an email to Brennan on December 29 that including it in any form risked 'the credibility of the entire paper.'" However, Brennan responded, "My bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report."
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The CIA review concluded that, "With analysts operating under severe time constraints, limited information sharing, and heightened senior-level scrutiny, several aspects of tradecraft rigor were compromised — particularly in supporting the judgment that Vladimir Putin 'aspired' to help Donald Trump win." John Ratcliffe said the agents behind the new assessment were "just appalled" by what they uncovered. "The most destructive thing you can do with intelligence is to weaponize it for one party's political gain against another, to blame an admitted adversary for something they didn't do. It was like pouring gasoline on the fire," he said.
