CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny complained on Wednesday that his network should not be covering newly declassified information showing Russia had intelligence that alleged former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was taking “heavy tranquilizers” daily.
Gabbard said at a Wednesday White House press briefing that the intelligence report she published was based on Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails that Russia had obtained. Zeleny said on “CNN News Central” that former Clinton campaign representatives had not yet responded to the network’s inquiries about the allegations, which he dismissed. (RELATED: Trump Compares ‘Jeffrey Epstein Hoax’ To Russiagate, Blasts ‘Past’ Supporters)
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“[W]e should point out that these are some pretty far out there allegations — that [the] Russian intelligence community had information that Hillary Clinton was on tranquilizers at the time,” Zeleny said. “This was in no way verified. We have no idea. I mean, this is hardly information that we should even be repeating.”
“Never mind that it’s, you know, some years after the fact — eight years, more than that, after the fact — but also just to look at the source,” he continued. “But look, this is what this White House wants to talk about. And I’m not sure that we should spend that much more time on it, frankly.”
The newly declassified information contradicts the narrative that Russia wanted President Donald Trump to win, as the country held onto potentially damaging information about Clinton. In fact, senior intelligence community officials suppressed evidence contradicting the finding that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted Trump to beat Clinton, according to the report.
“The judgement that Putin developed a ‘clear preference for candidate Trump and ‘aspired to help his chances of victory’ did not adhere to the tenets of the ICD (Intelligence Community Directive) analytical standards,” according to the report.
Reliable intelligence challenged and undercut the premise of a January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) directed by former President Barack Obama finding Russia had conspired to damage Clinton’s chances of victory.
The ICA states that the CIA and the FBI assessed with “high confidence” that Russia wanted to boost Trump’s campaign.
Former CIA Director John Brennan “ordered the post-election publication of 15 reports containing previously collected but unpublished intelligence, three of which were substandard – containing information that was unclear, of uncertain origin, potentially biased or implausible – and those became foundational sources for the ICA judgements that Putin preferred Trump over Clinton,” the report states.
One “scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of these substandard reports constitutes the only classified information cited to suggest Putin ‘aspired’ to help Trump win,” it states.
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