WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s top intelligence official said Tuesday that he has declassified Russian intelligence alleging damaging information about Democrats during the 2016 election even though he acknowledged it might not be true.
The announcement, just hours before the first presidential debate of this November’s election, drew harsh criticism from lawmakers who accused National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe of politicizing intelligence.
In a letter Tuesday to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Ratcliffe said that in late July 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies obtained “insight” into Russian spycraft alleging that Hillary Clinton, who was running for president, had “approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against” Trump.
But Ratcliffe added that American intelligence agencies do “not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.”
The announcement was a startling break from convention given that the nation’s intelligence chiefs are generally loath to publicly discuss sensitive government intelligence, particularly when that information is unconfirmed — as Ratcliffe himself admits is the case here.
