Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said on Sunday he has had to coordinate with U.S. Attorney John Durham’s review of the investigation into links between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign and plans to declassify “additional documents” soon.
“I pledged to a bipartisan group of senators that I would look at all of the underlying intelligence surrounding the intelligence community’s assessment of Russia’s interference and this idea of Trump-Russia collusion,” Ratcliffe told “Sunday Morning Futures.” “But I’m not going to prejudice John Durham’s work in connection with that, so we’ve had to coordinate with his office about the timing of that. But I’m optimistic that I’ll be declassifying additional documents soon.”
DNI RATCLIFFE DEFENDS HALTING IN-PERSON ELECTION BRIEFINGS
Ratcliffe said he had spoken with Durham.
John Ratcliffe testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
“He’s looking at the same documents that I am,” Ratcliffe said. “He’s not sharing his findings or the work that he’s doing. But I’m coordinating with him to make sure that he has the intelligence documents that he needs to do his work. And what I don’t want to do is declassify something that might prejudice his work. So we’re going to have to coordinate as we go forward with the completion of his work with my ability to declassify documents.”
Ratcliffe and his predecessor, acting Director Ric Grenell, have declassified some documents related to the origins of the Russia investigation.
One document declassified by Ratcliffe and transmitted to Congress revealed that the FBI agent who delivered the defensive briefing on election interference to the Trump campaign in August 2016 “actively listened” for certain topics – using it as a “cover” to monitor then-candidate Donald Trump and Michael Flynn, a source familiar with the document said.
Likewise, a declassified footnote on the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference noted that the reporting of Trump dossier author Christopher Steele had only “limited corroboration” regarding whether then-President-elect Donald Trump “knowingly worked with Russian officials to bolster his chances of beating” Hillary Clinton and other claims.
That footnote was transmitted to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., in June.
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Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty earlier in August in federal court to making a false statement in the first criminal case arising from the Durham probe.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
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