Obama administration appointees James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence at the time, and John Brennan, the former CIA director, are in the bull’s-eye of a new Judicial Watch Freedom of Information lawsuit.
The government watchdog is demanding access to communications between them, and between them and CNN “around the time the Clinton-Democrat National Committee Trump dossier was being pitched to key media outlets,” Judicial Watch announced on Wednesday.
“A House report detailed that Clapper leaked information regarding the dossier to CNN in January 2017,” Judicial Watch said, noting he signed on as an analyst for CNN in August 2017. “Judicial Watch is also seeking records of communications between Clapper and Obama CIA Director John Brennan regarding the dossier , which was authored by former British spy and FBI payee Christopher Steele.”
“Judicial Watch is again in court trying to get the truth about the Obama gang illegal leaks and conspiracy targeting President Trump,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “Clapper and Brennan were key proponents of the big lie, exposed by the Mueller report, that President Trump colluded with the Russians. Judicial Watch FOIA litigation is the best hope for getting full accountability on this attack on our constitutional republic.”
The organization filed the legal action in federal court in Washington.
It is asking for, “All records of communication, including emails (whether on .gov or non-.gov email accounts), text messages and instant chats, between officials in the office of the Director of National Intelligence, including but not limited to James Clapper, and employees, representatives and contractors of CNN.”
It also seeks the communications between Brennan and CNN, Brennan and Clapper and between Brennan and Clapper about CNN, the organization revealed.
It is focusing on the “Steele dossier,” that unverified and salacious document created by Steele with funding from the Clinton campaign and the DNC.
So the records it seeks relate to Clapper’s and Brennan’s communications about that dossier, and between them about CNN.
Explained Judicial Watch, “In a March 2018, report, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee said, ‘Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, now a CNN national security analyst, provided inconsistent testimony to the committee about his contacts with the media, including CNN.’ And, ‘when questioned by the committee … Clapper admitted that he confirmed the existence of the dossier to the media.'”
Clapper later admitted he had discussed the Steele dossier with CNN’s Jake Tapper and other journalists in early 2017, “shortly before President Donald Trump’s inauguration,” the watchdog group said.
It was in a January 10, 2017, report that carried bylines by Tapper and several others that CNN first revealed that then-FBI Director James Comey had briefed then-President-elect Trump on the dossier’s claims, which Comey later described as “salacious and unverified.”
The Intelligence Committee’s report said that “Clapper subsequently acknowledged discussing the ‘dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper,’ and admitted that he might have spoken with other journalists about the same topic. Clapper’s discussion with Tapper took place in ‘early January 2017,’ around the time [intelligence officials] briefed President Obama and President-elect Trump, on ‘the Christopher Steele information.'”
But Brennan, in an interview with NBC News on February 4, 2018, insisted that the Steele dossier “did not play any role whatsoever” in early intelligence assessments on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, a claim that was undermined by subsequent reports.
In fact, Victor Davis Hanson later in National Review explained Brennan was the “stealthy conduit” to make certain the dossier was distributed widely.
