U.S. intelligence officials included a “disinformation” report on the Clinton Foundation in briefing materials prepared for Donald Trump, but unlike the explosive allegations against Trump, that batch of rumors has not made it into the press.
Intel briefers included the documents on both Trump and Clinton in the briefing materials they prepared regarding Russian meddling in the election, reports NBC News. Although neither document made it into an oral briefing to Trump, the briefers wanted them available in order to contrast analyzed intelligence with unverified “disinformation” campaigns.
While the dossier of explosive rumors regarding Russian dirt on Trump made it into print Wednesday, little is publicly known about the unsubstantiated allegations regarding the Clinton Foundation. News the FBI opened investigations into both the Clinton Foundation and Trump’s alleged ties with Russia came to light during the presidential campaign.
The dossier on Trump was compiled by a former British spy who was paid by both Republicans and Democrats to dig up dirt regarding Trump and Russia. The salacious report made the rounds in Washington and was brought to the attention of the U.S. intelligence community, but neither the intel community nor motivated journalists were able to verify any of its claims.
Journalists held off on writing about the dossier, since it was totally unsubstantiated, until CNN used news of its inclusion in the briefing materials Tuesday to bring it to public attention. Buzzfeed then published the full document, and a flurry of damaging headlines for Trump followed in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and other prominent news outlets.
Totally lost in the furor over these reports, however, is talk of the Clinton Foundation dossier. Its existence alongside that of the Trump document further derails the narrative first constructed by CNN that the intel community is worried in particular about the explosive allegations against Trump.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper decried leaks to the press from the top secret briefing in a statement Wednesday, and said categorically the intelligence community has not made a judgment as to the veracity of the Trump dossier. “We did not rely upon [the dossier] in any way for our conclusions,” Clapper said, also putting into question CNN’s report that it was used by intel officials to justify their conclusion that Putin wanted Trump to win.
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