Several batches of documents have been declassified, including the release of unverified Russian intelligence from 2016 that suggested Clinton's presidential campaign was trying to tie Trump to Russia . Trump and his allies have seized on the documents to attack the Obama administration -- and President-elect Joe Biden -- during the 2020 campaign. The National Security Agency and the CIA have repeatedly opposed Ratcliffe's declassification of the unverified intelligence. Michael Ellis, an official on the National Security Council , shifted over to the National Security Agency as legal counsel, which puts him in a civil servant role at an agency at the forefront of the declassification dispute. Cohen-Watnick gained notoriety in March 2017 for his alleged involvement with Ellis in providing intelligence materials to Nunes, who went on to claim that US intelligence officials improperly surveilled Trump associates.

Source: CNN November 11, 2020 23:48 UTC