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Bipartisan Senate report says 2017 intel assessment about Russian interference and Trump was accurate
Time for Barr to call off the witch hunt. There now exists no predication for his Trump ordered investigation.
A bipartisan investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee has validated the January 2017 U.S. intelligence assessment describing Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election — including Russian efforts to help Donald Trump — describing it as accurate, thorough, and untainted by political bias.
The Committee found no reason to dispute the Intelligence Community's conclusions," said Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C.
The CIA and other spy agencies produced the assessment during the final weeks of the Obama administration, and a version of it was made public on Jan. 6, 2017. It told a story of a Russian covert operation designed to undermine American democracy that evolved into an attempt to help Trump win.
The new report by the Republican-run committee — which examines how the assessment was put together — undercuts criticisms by some of President Trump's supporters that the spy agencies overstated Russia's activities. A long-running theory on the right holds that the assessment was "rigged" by a cabal of hand-picked intelligence analysts led by then-CIA Director John Brennan, who has become a vocal Trump critic.
The Senate report found no evidence of that. To the contrary, the intelligence committee was told that debate over the conclusions was free flowing and that no one exerted undue influence.
"In all the interviews of those who drafted and prepared the (assessment), the Committee heard consistently that analysts were under no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions," the report says. "All analysts ... were free to debate, object to content, and assess confidence levels."
That conclusion is significant, because it comes as a prosecutor appointed by Attorney General William Barr is said to be examining Brennan's role in the assessment, which was written based on intelligence gathered by the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency, among others.
Barr has suggested Durham may indict people.
Time for Barr to call off the witch hunt. There now exists no predication for his Trump ordered investigation.
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