Clinton exposed as Russiagate source? CIA’s Ratcliffe teases more docs coming 

CIA Director John Ratcliffe is stepping into the fray, backing up claims by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that Russiagate’s origins can now be tied directly to a coterie of intelligence officials and also to former President Barack Obama. Obama allegedly directed those officials — James Comey, John Brennan and James Clapper — to reach stronger conclusions about Russia’s impact on the 2016 election, even though they knew there was no hacking. 

Now Ratcliffe says then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also involved.

“What hasn’t come out yet and what’s gong to come out is the underlying intelligence that I have spent the last few months making recommendations about — final declassification and sent that to the Department of Justice that will come out in the John Durham report classified annex,” Ratcliffe told Fox News. “And what that intelligence shows, Maria, is that part of this was a Hillary Clinton plan, but part of it was an FBI plan to be an accelerant to that fake Steele dossier, to those fake Russia collusion claims by pouring oil on the fire, by amplifying the lie and burying the truth of what Hillary Clinton was up to.” 

Later in the interview, Ratcliffe said that he didn’t think the statute of limitations would apply here, but he would leave to Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department to make a final determination.

Now to be clear, that report on Hillary Clinton’s involvement is still forthcoming. What you saw there was a teaser trailer of sorts.

This all comes amidst a major push by Gabbard and the Trump administration to re-open the issue of Russiagate’s origins. We now know that major claims in mainstream media about the extent of Russia’s malfeasance and its connection to the Trump campaign were serially exaggerated at the behest of countless intelligence officials. Clinton, perhaps even more so than Obama, clearly bought into the idea that Russian activity cast down on Trump’s win in 2016.  

She repeatedly called him an illegitimate president. In fact, even years later, in 2020, long after the ideological underpinnings of Russiagate had collapsed, Clinton was still making such claims on a podcast in 2020. 

“The one thing that Trump is fearful of when it comes to his being president is that finally we will see how illegitimate his victory actually was and how he was involved in the seeking of foreign help and then the utilization of it,” she said. 

Clinton is, of course, entitled to continue being a sore loser about 2016, to shake her fist and say she really won that election. It’s not true, but she can say it. But the American people deserve to know if fake and discredited intelligence about Russia, that smeared the Trump campaign, was pushed by her own team.  

If Ratcliffe has the goods, I for one look forward to seeing it.  

Robbie Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.