President Trump’s spy chief claims the Intelligence Community played no role in the creation of a classified appendix compiled by Democrats containing allegations of Russian interference efforts that was partly leaked to the media and used to accuse Senate Republicans of entangling themselves in a foreign disinformation scheme.
“I can confirm the IC did not create the classified addendum … nor did we authorize its creation,” Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe wrote in a letter to senators, which was obtained by the Washington Examiner.
He was referring to a mid-July letter to the FBI from Democratic leaders which claimed, in part, that “Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign.”
Two GOP chairmen in the Senate, who are conducting investigations into the Trump-Russia investigation, told Ratcliffe in mid-August that the Democrats’ letter “included a classified addendum that, although classified, was described in press reports” and asked if the Intelligence Community played any role in its creation.
In his response, which came in late August, Ratcliffe said, “The IC was not consulted prior to its creation and subsequent release.” The addendum, he added, “only draws selectively from a small number of IC reports and focuses on only one threat actor in the elections security space” and “by no means reflects the full and complete analysis of the IC.”
The letter that was sent to FBI Director Christopher Wray, and made public, was signed off by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, and other Democrats.
“We are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation,” they wrote. The Democrats, who also asked for a briefing, accused top GOP investigators of making use of information from allegedly Russian intelligence-connected Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach, a claim they have vociferously rejected.
“We flatly reject and deny any claims that we have received, much less are relying on, any materials received from Andriy Derkach — and there is no such evidence to support these false Democrat claims,” Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley and Senate Homeland Security Chairman Johnson said Thursday. “It’s clear from the ODNI’s letter that this addendum was created to advance partisan politics, not election security. Congress should take seriously any real threat to our elections, not just the ones Democrats find politically convenient or ones they cook up based on actual disinformation to smear their political rivals.”
Bill Evanina, who leads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, released an intelligence assessment in early August warning that Russia is “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate” former Vice President Joe Biden, including that Derkach “is spreading claims about corruption — including through publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine” Biden. The same statement also said China “prefers” that Trump not win reelection and is “expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020.” The counterintelligence official also said Iran “seeks to undermine” Trump’s presidency.
Ratcliffe recently said that “China poses a greater national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation” and “that includes threats of election influence and interference.” Attorney General William Barr said on Wednesday he believes that China, not Russia, is the bigger election threat. Ratcliffe also announced over the weekend that he is replacing election security briefings that are conducted in-person with written products over concerns about leaks and politicization, a move which Democrats condemned.
A July Politico article pointed to the Democrats’ letter to the FBI and mentioned that “top congressional Democrats are sounding the alarm about a series of packets mailed to prominent allies of President Donald Trump — material they say is part of a foreign disinformation plot to damage” Biden. A congressional official cited by the outlet said that the classified addendum included intelligence that “draws, in large part, from the executive branch’s own reporting and analysis.” But Ratcliffe said the IC was not involved in the appendix’s creation, and Grassley and Johnson deny ever having received (let alone using) any such information from Derkach.
A press released from the Republicans on Thursday said that in the classified addendum, Democrats “mixed their theories on unclassified open source material with classified intelligence reports to fabricate a veneer of credibility but shield their analysis from public scrutiny.”
“Without any basis, Democrats speculated that the document possibly suggests Derkach may have sent packets of material to Grassley and Johnson,” the senators said, adding that “although this document itself appears to be foreign disinformation, Democrats included it in the classified addendum and its subsequent leak was reported as fact by U.S. media outlets.”
The GOP senators “have repeatedly rejected claims that they are in contact with Derkach or have received or relied on his work product,” the statement continued, adding that “their investigation is based on records from the Obama administration and a U.S.-based Democratic lobby shop.”
An August Washington Post article linked to Derkach’s “DemoCorruption” flow chart (a conspiratorial rendering with Biden and Democratic megadonor George Soros at the top) and said the “chart lists influential Americans pursuing Derkach’s agenda in the United States.” But Johnson and Grassley have repeatedly labeled the Derkach document as “disinformation” and say it has nothing to do with their inquiry.
“The addendum provides a description of the Derkach document and speculates that an envelope icon under the pictures of certain U.S. officials possibly suggests that Derkach may have sent them material. Obviously, that’s not at all what the envelope icons are referring to,” a congressional source familiar with the addendum told the Washington Examiner.
Clicking on the envelope icon under the names of the officials in Derkach’s flowchart does not direct one to anything Derkach has sent, but rather links to an assortment of letters written by the specific U.S. officials on topics connected to Ukraine but largely or entirely unrelated to Derkach’s claims, a possible effort by Derkach to give his chart credibility.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut penned an op-ed in the Washington Post in early August in which he noted the outlet reported that Johnson “is moving ahead with an investigation into … Joe Biden using documents provided to [Johnson] by the son of a former KGB officer.”
“We have not taken, nor do we possess, the documents from Ukrainians that Democrats keep claiming,” Johnson said in response.
Johnson’s committee voted along party lines in May to approve a subpoena for Blue Star Strategies, a firm that represented Burisma. Republicans have also questioned Andrii Telizhenko, a former diplomat at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington who had worked with the firm and was with Rudy Giuliani during the Trump lawyer’s trip to Ukraine in December.
Burisma became a hot-button issue last year when Trump seemed to reference it in a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that was the focus of a whistleblower complaint that led to the House impeachment investigation. After Zelensky expressed interest in purchasing anti-tank weaponry, Trump asked Zelensky “to do us a favor though” by looking into a CrowdStrike conspiracy theory and possible Ukrainian meddling in 2016. Trump also urged Zelensky to investigate “the other thing,” referring to allegations of corruption involving Biden and his son, Hunter, who previously had a lucrative position on the energy company’s board.
The Democratic-led House impeached Trump in December, but he was acquitted in the Republican-led Senate trial in February.
