Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul implicated former President Barack Obama and former CIA Director John Brennan in the dissemination of the Steele dossier throughout the U.S. government before and after the 2016 presidential election in a Thursday morning interview on “Fox & Friends.”
Paul said Wednesday evening that a high-level source told him Brennan insisted on briefing Obama and President Donald Trump on the dossier days after the 2016 presidential election.
The briefing was later the impetus for news reports from CNN, which led to BuzzfeedNews releasing the full unverified dossier. (RELATED: John Brennan Says His Mueller Report Suspicions Were Wrong)
BREAKING: A high-level source tells me it was Brennan who insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier be included in the Intelligence Report… Brennan should be asked to testify under oath in Congress ASAP.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 27, 2019
Paul went further Thursday morning, saying he believes the dossier was held by the FBI for “several months” and then briefed to Obama.
The senator continued, “I believe at that time they did talk to President Obama about it. I think they all should be asked when did President Obama learn about this, what was his recommendation? He is in charge of the government. Did he recommend that you try to spread the dossier throughout the government?”
Paul pointed to a March 2017 New York Times report that the Obama administration spread evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election throughout the government after Trump won the election.
“They were spreading the dossier, and they couldn’t get any traction. Then they released it to people outside the government, reporters who would write a story,” Paul said.
“In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government,” the TheNYT said.
Brennan was a vocal proponent of the idea that Trump colluded with the Russian government, an idea quashed by special counsel Robert Mueller in his report to Attorney General Bill Barr. Brennan later said he must have had “bad information” but said he was “relieved” by the findings.