Two former high-ranking officials of President Barack Obama’s administration slammed the Trump administration for its remarks about the 2016 Russia investigation.
For weeks, President Donald Trump has tried to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein files story. One of those attempts involved relitigating the 2016 investigation into Russia’s meddling in our elections.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan wrote in an essay for The New York Times that Trump’s attempt to “rewrite history” is a dangerous one.
“There is a remarkable irony about this whole affair,” Clapper and Brennan wrote. “Despite claims by Trump administration officials of a nefarious political conspiracy, we did everything we could at the time to prevent leaks of intelligence reports, including Russia’s preference for Mr. Trump, a requirement that President Obama regularly emphasized.”
“We knew such reports would be political dynamite. And despite substantial reporting on the matter, we succeeded in preventing such leaks before the election,” the essay continued.
“The real politicization is the calculated distortion of intelligence by administration officials, notably Mr. Trump’s directors of national intelligence and the C.I.A., positions that should be apolitical,” the two intelligence officials added.
“We find it deeply regrettable that the administration continues to perpetuate the fictitious narrative that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election,” the essay reads in part. “It should instead acknowledge that a foreign nation-state — a mortal enemy of the United States — routinely meddles in our national elections and will continue to do so unless we take appropriate bipartisan action to stop it.”