Senior intelligence officials who investigated allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election disagreed with former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan over a key claim, but he overruled their objections, according to a report published Tuesday.
Records recently obtained by The Federalist related to ongoing criminal investigations into Brennan and other senior intelligence officials, according to the report. Top officials in the intelligence community disagreed with Brennan over a central claim regarding alleged Russian interference, The Federalist reported.
The disagreement centered on the “key judgment” in a January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that claimed Russia interfered during the 2016 election because “Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances.” (RELATED: Tulsi Gabbard’s Files Release Raises Question About Claim From Obama Deputy National Security Advisor)
Senior intelligence officials challenged this conclusion, citing a lack of supporting evidence, according to new details published by The Federalist.
One member of the small team working with Brennan, former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director (FBI) James Comey and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper reportedly stated, “We have no intelligence to directly support this ‘aspiration’ point.”
The official warned that including the claim would “open the IC to a line of very politicized inquiry that is sure to come up when this paper is shared with the Hill,” according to the report.
A recent CIA review of the contested “key judgment” highlighted the danger of using weakly supported conclusions, noting that skeptical readers could “reject an entire analysis if a single judgment appears exaggerated, biased, or unsupported.”
The experts agreed Russia aimed to create chaos during presidential elections, and that intelligence showed Russia intended to undermine Hillary Clinton, which could have indirectly benefited Trump, according to the report.
However, they reportedly raised concerns about the lack of evidence for the central claim that Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.
“Can you really prove Moscow was trying to get Trump elected?” the official asked in late December 2016, according to The Federalist.
Brennan reportedly summoned the officials who contradicted the assessment to his office on December 30, 2016, for a long meeting, and they expressed deep concerns.
“The assessment will stay the same,” Brennan reportedly stated at the end of the meeting. (RELATED: Trump Vows To Release Key Intel On Hillary Clinton, Russia Collusion Hoax)
The dispute created issues for Brennan, who portrayed the assessment as a consensus view held with a high degree of confidence, the report noted.
The 2025 CIA review later found the key judgment was given a “higher confidence level than was justified.”
The review also pointed out how media leaks to The Washington Post and The New York Times (NYT) falsely suggested the intelligence community (IC) had come to “definitive conclusions.” The memo added the ICA’s rushed timeline pointed to “a potential political motive.”
When recounting the events, Brennan dismissed the concerns of the dissenting officials in his 2020 book “Undaunted,” stating: “I came to the conclusion that the two officers had not read all the available intelligence.”
Brennan claimed the CIA’s top Russia officials were “not closely tracking all of the intelligence available” and that he had access to “raw intelligence” they had not seen, according to a 2022 letter from Brennan’s attorney to Special Counsel John Durham.
This letter was shared with The Atlantic following the review by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, which revealed significant issues with how the ICA was created.
The CIA review questioned if limiting access to information was justified, especially since experts who saw the intelligence still debated its meaning.
Brennan began privately briefing Congress months before the 2016 election that the CIA possessed information showing Russia was working to get Trump elected, according to a 2017 NYT report.
When Brennan told former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that Russia sought to boost Trump’s chances, McConnell was reportedly skeptical of the intelligence. (RELATED: Trump Compares ‘Jeffrey Epstein Hoax’ To Russiagate, Blasts ‘Past’ Supporters)
In contrast, former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid collaborated with Brennan to shape a public letter regarding the allegations of Russian interference.
Brennan never publicly revealed the intelligence he claimed showed Russia aimed to help Trump, despite allegedly restricting access to it even as the ICA was widely shared.
