Government watchdog Judicial Watch has released 90 pages of documents it obtained from the State Department that show the frenetic efforts of the Obama administration to distribute classified information to undermine President Trump just prior to his inauguration.
“These documents show how the Obama State Department, staffed by Clinton donors, improperly, and perhaps illegally, rushed classified information to their anti-Trump allies in the U.S. Senate,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
“The Obama State Department was central to the conspiracy to smear President Trump with Russiagate lies and innuendo. The Justice Department must expand any Spygate criminal investigation to include this agency.”
The documents were obtained through a June 2018 Freedom of Information Act request.
Judicial Watch said the information, which included raw intelligence, purported to show “malign” Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Among the senators receiving the classified documents were Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Robert Corker, R-Tenn.
The urgent communications, which were outside of regular channels, and were sent by a number of State Department employees seeking to undermine Trump, Judicial Watch said.
A Jan. 13, 2017, email from Hera Abbasi, a former congressional advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs, suggests that the intelligence community was providing “raw intel” to Warner.
Abbasi previously worked in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and was a 2017 Next Generation National Security Fellow at the liberal Center for a New American Security. She donated $725 to the Clinton campaign and Act Blue during the 2016 election cycle.
The documents show that one day after Warner formally asked Attorney General John Kerry for “intelligence products” and “raw intelligence” on Russian involvement in the 2016 election, Assistant Secretary of State Julia Frifield brought senior adviser and investigations counsel Zachary Schram into the loop in a Jan. 5, 2017, email chain.
Frifield says Schram would help “figure out the best way to get these to the Hill.”
Frifield was an Obama appointee who previously served as chief of staff for Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. She contributed $2,700 to the 2016 Clinton campaign.
On Jan. 17, 2017, three days before Trump’s inauguration, Kathleen Kavalec of European affairs emailed Abbasi, her aide Naz Durakoglu and others emphasizing, again, that getting the documents to Cardin and Warner was a priority.
She urged that the process be sped up.
“Agree this is a priority … and I don’t see why lengthy reviews are required,” Kavalec wrote. “I would suggest we send up the things that can go immediately, and if there is any concern about specific internal documents, those be adjudicated separately and sent up as a follow-on.”
The emails repeatedly emphasize the time sensitivity, apparently referring to the need to spread the information before Trump took over.
Judicial Watch explained the emails “show Hillary Clinton’s supporters’ efforts to get classified documents and raw intelligence on alleged Russia involvement in 2016 election to Capitol Hill before Trump inauguration.
Judicial Watch said that even the Office of Director of National Intelligence, then led by James Clapper, was involved, clearing cables for release.
One email insisted that workers move things along faster.
“Hi All. This is a priority for our Assistant Secretary. … Is there anything we can do to better facilitate the process?”
Judicial Watch previously released documents showing classified information was researched and disseminated to multiple U.S. senators by the Obama administration immediately prior to Trump’s inauguration. It also previously reported on an email exchange between then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Special Coordinator for Libya Jonathan Winer, a close associate of dossier author Christopher Steele, discussing a ‘face-to-face’ meeting on a ‘Russian matter.'”
