CIA says report on Russian interference in 2016 election may be distorted
Illustrative photo: CIA reported pressure during preparation of 2016 election report (GettyImages)
The CIA has released a report revealing multiple procedural violations during the drafting of the assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, according to the agency’s document cited by the New York Post.
The report claims that at the end of his second term, 44th US President Barack Obama, along with then-Directors of National Intelligence, the CIA, and the FBI, James Clapper, John Brennan, and James Comey, decided to release an intelligence assessment on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election as a way to undermine Donald Trump early in his presidency.
"This was Obama, Comey, Clapper and Brennan deciding 'We’re going to screw Trump,'" said Ratcliffe in an exclusive interview.
According to Ratcliffe, the heads of the intelligence agencies aimed to create a report so authoritative that it couldn’t be questioned, labeling it as a "Russian collusion" case and classifying it to reinforce credibility.
"It put the seal of approval of the intelligence community that Russia was helping Trump and that the Steele dossier was the scandal of our lifetime. It ate up the first two years of his [Trump’s first] presidency," Ratcliffe noted.
Earlier reporting highlighted that Donald Trump's actions had sharply worsened Ukrainians’ perceptions of US leadership.
While in December 2024, a majority (54%) of Ukrainians held optimistic views about Trump, by March 2025, 73% believed his presidency was bad for Ukraine, while only 19% saw it as good.
