by WorldTribune Staff, August 24, 2020
Former CIA Director John Brennan was interviewed by U.S. Attorney John Durham for eight hours at CIA headquarters on Aug. 14.
Durham asked the former CIA chief about intelligence-related activities before the 2016 election, as well as about an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) about Russian meddling in the election, according to Brennan adviser Nick Shapiro.
“Brennan also told Durham that the repeated efforts of Donald Trump & William Barr to politicize Mr. Durham’s work have been appalling & have tarnished the independence & integrity of the Department of Justice, making it difficult for DOJ professionals to carry out their job,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro did not explain why the “interview” took place at CIA headquarters or how Durham responded to Brennan’s accusations.
“Brennan was informed by Mr. Durham that he is not a subject or a target of a criminal investigation and that he is only a witness to events that are under review,” Shapiro said in a statement on Twitter.
Information from the bogus Christopher Steele dossier ended up in Brennan’s intelligence assessment, which the Obama White House released on Jan. 6, 2017.
FBI officials, including James Comey and Andrew McCabe, lobbied to include information from the dossier in the ICA.
“Officials and analysts at the CIA did not want to use the information because they found it unreliable,” the Daily Caller noted.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said that a CIA analyst said that the agency considered the dossier to be “Internet rumor.”
One CIA analyst told the Senate Intelligence Committee that a “bitter dispute” ensued between the agency and FBI over the dossier information. The FBI eventually got its way, and a two-page summary of the dossier was included as an appendix in the ICA.
“FBI officials knew at the time of the debate that were concerns about the credibility of the dossier and Steele,” the Daily Caller noted.
Barr has said that Durham’s findings thus far are “troubling” and that there will likely be “significant” developments in the investigation in the origins of the Trump-Russia hoax before the election.
Earlier this month, former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to making false statements by altering an email from a CIA analyst in June 2017 to say that Carter Page, a former Trump aide, was “not a source” for the spy agency. Page was what’s called an operational contact for the CIA through 2013.
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