ODNI Declassifies Large Batch Of Documents For Durham’s Criminal Investigation Into Russia Probe Origins

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has approved the release of nearly 1,000 pages of documents to the Department of Justice as a part of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal investigation into the origins of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016.

“At my direction, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has now provided almost 1,000 pages of materials to the Department of Justice in response to Mr. Durham’s document requests,” Ratcliffe said. “I will continue to ensure the Intelligence Community’s responsiveness to the DOJ’s requests. We also look forward to supporting the DOJ in further declassifications consistent with their investigation.”

The statement added, “As the President has made clear, we must be appropriately transparent with the American people and give them the confidence that the extraordinary work of Intelligence professionals is never misused or politicized.”

Ratcliffe’s announcement comes after he declassified documents in late September showing that U.S. intelligence agencies “obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee.”

Democrats and the media rushed to downplay the revelation, calling it “Russian disinformation,” which Ratcliffe immediately pushed back on, specifically noting that the information was not “Russian disinformation.”

“To be clear, this is not Russian disinformation and has not been assessed as such by the Intelligence Community,” Ratcliffe said in a subsequent statement. “I’ll be briefing Congress on the sensitive sources and methods by which it was obtained in the coming days.”

Ratcliffe also revealed that with just two months to go until the 2016 election, “U.S. intelligence officials forwarded an investigative referral to FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok regarding ‘U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s approval of a plan concerning U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private mail server.'”

This week, Ratcliffe declassified additional documents showing former CIA Director John Brennan’s handwritten notes on the matter, which he wrote after he briefed former President Barack Obama on the matter.Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell responded to the news by writing on Twitter: “Proof. @BarackObama @JoeBiden directed their administration to use the powers of government to attack @realDonaldTrump campaign and then transition. The Susan Rice email to herself after the Oval Office meeting was part of a coverup.”