{"id":147584,"date":"2025-07-02T15:28:43","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T20:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/?p=147584"},"modified":"2025-07-02T15:28:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T20:28:43","slug":"director-ratcliffe-handling-of-steele-dossier-by-brennan-comey-compromised-cia-tradecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/director-ratcliffe-handling-of-steele-dossier-by-brennan-comey-compromised-cia-tradecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"Director Ratcliffe: Handling of Steele Dossier by Brennan, Comey compromised CIA ‘tradecraft’"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/em><\/span> WorldTribune<\/strong> Staff<\/em><\/span><\/span>, July 2, 2025 <\/em>Real World News<\/span><\/a>
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Wednesday released a review which blasts the U.S. intelligence community\u2019s handling of alleged Russian influence in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n

Ratcliffe slammed then-CIA Director John Brennan for joining FBI Director James Comey in pushing to include the bogus anti-Trump dossier by British ex-spy Christopher Steele in the intelligence community’s assessment of Russiagate.<\/p>\n

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CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis noted that newly-declassified documents show how James Comey, left, and John Brennan ‘personally intervened to insert the Steele dossier’s lies into intelligence analysis. We must have zero tolerance for the weaponization of intelligence.’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAgency heads at the time created a politically charged environment that triggered an atypical analytic process around an issue essential to our democracy,\u201d Ratcliffe said. \u201cUnder my watch, I am committed to ensuring that our analysts have the ability to deliver unvarnished assessments that are free from political influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The eight-page \u201clessons learned<\/a>\u201d review, dated June 26 \u2013 focuses on the December 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) about Russia and the November 2016 election \u2013 was put together by the CIA’s Directorate of Analysis (DA) at Ratcliffe\u2019s direction and concluded that \u201cthe decision by agency heads to include the Steele Dossier in the ICA ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The review states: “The ICA authors and multiple senior CIA managers \u2014 including the two senior leaders of the CIA mission center responsible for Russia \u2014\u00a0strongly opposed including the Dossier, asserting that it did not meet even the most basic tradecraft standards. CIA\u2019s Deputy Director for Analysis (DDA) warned in an email to Brennan on 29 December that including it in any form risked \u201cthe credibility of the entire paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

The review continues: “Despite these objections, Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness. When confronted with specific flaws in the Dossier by the two mission center leaders \u2014 one with extensive operational experience and the other with a strong analytic background \u2014 he appeared more swayed by the Dossier’s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns. Brennan ultimately formalized his position in writing, stating that ‘my bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.’ \u201d<\/p>\n

The newly-released CIA review also revealed that \u201cICA authors first learned of the Dossier, and FBI leadership\u2019s insistence on its inclusion, on 20 December [2016] \u2014 the same day the largely coordinated draft was entering the review process at CIA\u201d and that \u201cFBI leadership made it clear that their participation in the ICA hinged on the Dossier\u2019s inclusion and, over the next few days, repeatedly pushed to weave references to it throughout the main body of the ICA.\u201d<\/p>\n

CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis tweeted Tuesday that newly-declassified documents \u201cshow how Brennan and Comey personally intervened to insert the Steele dossier’s lies into intelligence analysis. We must have zero tolerance for the weaponization of intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The review concludes: \u201cThe procedural anomalies that characterized the ICA\u2019s development had a direct impact on the tradecraft applied to its most contentious finding. With analysts operating under severe time constraints, limited information sharing, and heightened senior-level scrutiny, several aspects of tradecraft rigor were compromised \u2014 particularly in supporting the judgment that Putin \u2018aspired\u2019 to help Trump win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe also pushed in December 2016 to include Steele’s debunked dossier in the body of the 2016 ICA on alleged Russian meddling. They were largely thwarted by the NSA and others \u2013 yet the dossier was still included in an annex to the assessment.<\/p>\n

A two-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller \u201cdid not establish\u201d any criminal Trump-Russia collusion. In addition, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found huge flaws with the FBI\u2019s investigation, including criticizing the \u201ccentral and essential\u201d role of the Steele dossier in the FBI\u2019s politicized surveillance of former Trump campaign associate Carter Page.<\/p>\n

A report by DOJ special counsel John Durham concluded in 2023 that \u201cneither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durham also said the “FBI ignored the fact that at no time before, during, or after Crossfire Hurricane were investigators able to corroborate a single substantive allegation in the Steele dossier reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

.@POTUS<\/a> has trusted me with helping to end weaponization of US intelligence. Today’s report underscores that the 2016 IC Assessment was conducted through an atypical & corrupt process under the politically charged environments of former Dir. Brennan & former FBI Dir. Comey. https:\/\/t.co\/VXBp3oy6EM<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 John Ratcliffe (@DCIARatcliffe) July 2, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n