C.I.A. Had Evidence of Russian Effort to Help Trump Earlier Than Believed

[spanone]

John O. Brennan in July when he was the C.I.A. director. Mr. Brennan was said to be so concerned about increasing evidence of Russia’s election meddling that in late August he began a series of individual briefings for eight top members of Congress.

WASHINGTON — The C.I.A. told senior lawmakers in classified briefings last summer that it had information indicating that Russia was working to help elect Donald J. Trump president, a finding that did not emerge publicly until after Mr. Trump’s victory months later, former government officials say.

The briefings indicate that intelligence officials had evidence of Russia’s intentions to help Mr. Trump much earlier in the presidential campaign than previously thought. The briefings also reveal a critical split last summer between the C.I.A. and counterparts at the F.B.I., where a number of senior officials continued to believe through last fall that Russia’s cyberattacks were aimed primarily at disrupting America’s political system, and not at getting Mr. Trump elected, according to interviews.

The former officials said that in late August — 10 weeks before the election — John O. Brennan, then the C.I.A. director, was so concerned about increasing evidence of Russia’s election meddling that he began a series of urgent, individual briefings for eight top members of Congress, some of them on secure phone lines while they were on their summer break.

It is unclear what new intelligence might have prompted the classified briefings. But with concerns growing both internally and publicly at the time about a significant Russian breach of the Democratic National Committee, the C.I.A. began seeing signs of possible connections to the Trump campaign, the officials said. By the campaign’s final weeks, Congress and the intelligence agencies were racing to understand the scope of the Russia threat.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/06/us/trump-russia-cia-john-brennan.html?_r=0

[Arkansas Granny]

1. I read that earlier. Good article.

[Botany]

2. McConnell knew and so did Ryan

It was a coup.

[Blue_Roses]

4. Yep.

McConnell is complicit as hell. And then his wife gets a cabinet spot. Do they really think all of us are that stupid?

[Botany]

5. How come McConnell was so sure that if he blocked Obama's pick for SCOTUS until ....

Last edited Fri Apr 7, 2017, 11:06 AM - Edit history (1)

.... after the election he would get a person to be up for associate justice that
was more to his liking?

And did Ryan and others use the data Russia got from their hacking in order to
run their campaigns?


But now we are going to have a new conservative Supreme Court Justice w/a lifetime
appointment. And if people don't think that matters look @ the middle east today and
the crap going on in Syria because w/out bush v Gore we would never have had 9/11,
a war in Iraq, al Qaeda in Iraq which morphed into ISIS, and then became a large player
in the Syrian civil war which caused the massive refugee crisis.

[Blue_Roses]

6. Yes, McConnell

seemed pretty confident he was going to get his SC pick BEFORE the election. I can't stand this man...

[bdamomma]

7. yes, they do

think we are that stupid. Other than seeing 45 go down, I want to see McConnell and Ryan go down.

DU'ers are not.

[bdamomma]

3. this is the real story

thank you Spanone for posting, we got to keep focused. Since this filthy regime we have think that the American people are asleep at the wheel.

[PdxSean]

8. Hence, the reason republicans won't investigate.

Republican leaders worked directly with Russia to hack democrats, distribute misinformation, and weaken our traditional alliances. It's early April, and republican leaders have strategically weakened our government and alienated Germany and Australia while embracing Russia and China. With few exceptions, the US media is in entertainment mode, geared for titillation, ratings boosts, and ad revenue.

I wouldn't say we're fucked just yet, but McConnell and Ryan are treating the US like a brothel and that shape in our bed looks a lot like Putin. I'm not sure whether Trump is the pimp or the receptionist, but he sure as hell ain't security.