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| Former CIA Director John Brennan |
Courtesy of the
New York Times:
The C.I.A. told senior lawmakers in classified briefings last summer that it had information indicating that Russia was working to help elect Donald J. Trump president, a finding that did not emerge publicly until after Mr. Trump’s victory months later, former government officials say.
The briefings indicate that intelligence officials had evidence of Russia’s intentions to help Mr. Trump much earlier in the presidential campaign than previously thought. The briefings also reveal a critical split last summer between the C.I.A. and counterparts at the F.B.I., where a number of senior officials continued to believe through last fall that Russia’s cyberattacks were aimed primarily at disrupting America’s political system, and not at getting Mr. Trump elected, according to interviews.
The former officials said that in late August — 10 weeks before the election — John O. Brennan, then the C.I.A. director, was so concerned about increasing evidence of Russia’s election meddling that he began a series of urgent, individual briefings for eight top members of Congress, some of them on secure phone lines while they were on their summer break.
One of those briefings was with then Senator Harry Reid, during which Brennan said that the CIA had limited legal ability to investigate possible connections to Trump.
That was a job for the FBI.
So Reid wrote a letter to James Comey, back in August, in which he said that he had “recently become concerned” that Russia’s interference was “more extensive than widely known.”
Unbeknownst to Reid at the time the FBI was already well into their own investigation of the Russian hacking, only THEY were convinced that it was really only directed at hurting Hillary, not at helping Trump.
Then things changed:
But as the election approached and new batches of hacked Democratic emails poured out, some F.B.I. officials began to change their view about Russia’s intentions and eventually came to believe, as the C.I.A. had months earlier, that Moscow was trying to help get Mr. Trump elected, officials said.
Still the FBI said nothing about the ties between Trump and the Russian, However on October 28th, FBI Director Comey DID
issue that letter about those emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop.
Which angered Harry Reid, and convinced him to
send this letter to Comey directly:
Still it took until December, AFTER the election, for it to become publicly known that the Russians did what they did to help get Donald Trump elected.
So why didn't the FBI put all of the pieces together as quickly as the CIA?
And why DID James Comey come out publicly to suggest that Clinton was under investigation, but not a word about the investigation into Trump's ties with the Russians?
All good questions. But it MIGHT have something to do with
this post from November of 2016 in which the FBI was described as "Trumpland":
This atmosphere raises major questions about how Comey and the bureau he is slated to run for the next seven years can work with Clinton should she win the White House.
The currently serving FBI agent said Clinton is “the antichrist personified to a large swath of FBI personnel,” and that “the reason why they’re leaking is they’re pro-Trump.”
The agent called the bureau “Trumplandia”, with some colleagues openly discussing voting for a GOP nominee who has garnered unprecedented condemnation from the party’s national security wing and who has pledged to jail Clinton if elected.
As if that were not terrifying enough, it also appears that the FBI is using information gleaned from an anti-Clinton book and Breitbart news as the foundation for an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
And that my friends is why we have Trump in the White House instead of the People's President.
So I guess the question that needs to be asked is whether the FBI is still "Trumpland" or can we expect them to do their jobs when it comes to the continuing investigation into the Trump team's possible collusion with the Russians?
Currently I don't know the answer.
