Details in IG Report Indicate CIA Spook John Brennan May Have Perjured Himself Before Congress
Shane Trejo
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Former CIA Director John Brennan was dishonest in his testimony to Congress when he told them that the infamous Steele dossier was not used in the Obama administration’s Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that ultimately led to the Russian collusion investigation, according to the IG report released yesterday.
The IG report indicated that there was serious discussion about whether the infamous Steele dossier should be included in the ICA. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe had said that “he felt strongly that the Steele election reporting belonged in the body of the ICA, because he feared that placing it in an appendix was ‘tacking it on’ in a way that would ‘minimiz[e]’ the information and prevent it from being properly considered.”
The Steele dossier was ultimately included in the ICA, although it was hidden in the appendix.
“In the appendix, the intelligence agencies explained that there was ‘only limited corroboration of the source’s reporting’ and that Steele’s election reports were not used ‘to reach analytic conclusions of the CIA/FBI/NSA assessment,’” the IG report states.
Brennan said during a colorful exchange with former Rep. Trey Gowdy while testifying before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2017 that the CIA did not rely on the Steele dossier while formulating the ICA:
Mr. Gowdy: Do you know if the Bureau ever relied on the Steele dossier as any — as part of any court filings, applications, petitions, pleadings?
Mr. Brennan: I have no awareness.
Mr. Gowdy: Did the CIA rely on it?
Mr. Brennan: No.
Mr. Gowdy: Why not?
Mr. Brennan: Because we — we didn’t. It wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community assessment that was done. It was — it was not.
FBI Director James Comey also confirmed in page 179 of the IG report that Brennan personally argued that the Steele Dossier was part of the “corpus of intelligence information” that was relevant for the development of the ICA.
“I remember being part of a conversation, maybe more than one conversation, where the topic was how the [Steele] reporting would be investigated, if at all, into the IC assessment. And I don’t remember participating in debates about that. I think I was just told, in, I think, in a meeting with Clapper and Brennan and Rogers [then NSA Director], that the IC analysts found it credible on its face and gravamen of it, and consistent with our other information, but not in a position where they would integrate it into the IC assessment,” Comey said, according to the IG report.
“But they thought it was important enough and consistent enough that it ought to be part of the package in some say, and so they had come up with this idea to make an [appendix]. I remember, I don’t think I was part of a debate about that, as I said, but I remember a conversation whee I was told that’s how it would be handled and my reaction was, okay, that’s reasonable,” Comey added.
Brennan is on Twitter blaming President Trump for damaging faith in America’s institutions:
The damage being inflicted by @realDonaldTrump on our national conscience & our government is tragic.
Members of Congress & staffers who defend & misrepresent his indefensible actions are telling Americans it’s ok to be dishonest, unethical, & corrupt.
How far we have fallen.
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) December 9, 2019
There is one way for President Trump to restore trust in the federal government, and that is to lock Brennan and his co-collaborators up for their bureaucratic coup attempt related to the Russian collusion hoax.
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