Ratcliffe’s Review Of 2016 Russia Probe ‘Protects Deep State,’ GOP Chair Says

The Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) has sent a letter directly to President Donald Trump telling him that CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s recent memo – which offered some critiques of the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of Russian meddling in the 2016 election – was a “whitewash” that “protects the deep state,” Just the News learned Thursday.

Ratcliffe on Wednesday morning released a “lessons learned” review of the December 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian influence in the November 2016 election, including critiquing the “high confidence” assessment by the FBI and the CIA that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had “aspired” to help Trump win the race against Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But the CIA’s review – put together by the CIA’s Directorate of Analysis (DA) at Ratcliffe’s direction – also stated that the review’s findings “should not be interpreted as indicative of broader systemic problems in the IC’s analytic processes or standards.”

Rep. Rick Crawford, chairman of the House Intelligence panel, took his concerns with the review’s conclusions directly to Trump in a letter Wednesday evening that contained rare but stark criticisms of the Republican CIA director by the Republican intelligence panel chairman.

“While I am pleased to see CIA take the first step of acknowledging the political abuse and tradecraft problems associated with the 2016 ICA, I am disappointed that the Agency was permitted to whitewash the full extent of their problems,” Crawford wrote to Trump, adding that “I write to report to you that this review fails to disclose critical information, offers misleading judgements, and protects the deep state.”