They claimed the information was a supposed smoking gun proving that Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration sought to frame Trump with a Russian collusion scandal. In fact, by the Trump administration's own admission, they are based on unverified Russian intelligence that could be totally bogus. Ratcliffe publicly disclosed the unverified Russian intelligence about Clinton despite concerns raised by the CIA and NSA, according to people briefed on the matter. The Russian assessment said Clinton was "stirring up a scandal (by) claiming interference by the Russian security service," according to Brennan's notes. The documents were first reported last week by Fox News' digital arm, which leaned into the misleading narrative pushed by Trump.

Source: CNN October 11, 2020 20:25 UTC