Trump's CIA Backs 2016 Assessment That Putin Wanted Him to Win

A fresh CIA review agreed with earlier conclusions that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton - while criticizing what it called procedural flaws.

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe said he had ordered the review to focus on the earlier report's "most debated judgment - that Russian President Vladimir Putin 'aspired' to help then-candidate Donald Trump win the election." The report found no reason to retract that claim.

"While the overall assessment was deemed defensible, the identified procedural anomalies and tradecraft issues highlight critical lessons for handling controversial or politically charged topics," it said. At the same time, the review highlighted the 2016 assessment's "analytic rigor."

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Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe

The latest findings put Ratcliffe in a bind with Trump, who has called Russian election interference "a total hoax" and blasted the original conclusions. That dispute sits at the heart of his antagonistic relationship with the intelligence community.

In declassifying and releasing the review on Wednesday, Ratcliffe didn't mention that it backed the earlier conclusion. Instead, he posted to X that that Obama-era officials "manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals - all to get Trump."

And the eight-page CIA note, dated June 26, waits until the bottom of the seventh page to mention that the original report's findings were sound - and then only under a section titled "Lessons Learned."

Instead, it highlighted what it called "multiple procedural anomalies," including severe time constraints, limited information-sharing, and heightened scrutiny from senior officials.

The CIA in 2016 concluded that the Russian government under President Vladimir Putin intervened in the election to boost Trump's candidacy against the Democratic Party's Hillary Clinton. Trump dismissed the assessment, saying at the time the US should move on instead of getting back at Russia.

Intelligence and law enforcement agencies had reached a conclusion then that the Russian government directed a broad hacking operation to interfere in the elections and undermine confidence in US democracy, before morphing into a campaign to damage Clinton. Russia has repeatedly denied the accusation.

Ratcliffe's report singled out former CIA Director John Brennan, who has become a target for President Donald Trump and his supporters, accusing him of showing "a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness" It faulted Brennan for demanding that the so-called Steele Dossier be included in the assessment.

The review also included a note praising the earlier assessment's "strong adherence to tradecraft standards." It also said its conclusions also shouldn't be interpreted as suggesting the intelligence community's processes have bigger problems.

Allegations of election interference prompted then President Barack Obama to impose sanctions on top Russian intelligence officials and expel diplomats.

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"Agency heads at the time created a politically charged environment that triggered an atypical analytic process around an issue essential to our democracy," Ratcliffe said, adding that he declassified the report to "promote analytic objectivity and transparency."
 

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