CIA “Cooked The Intelligence” To Hide That Russia Favored Clinton, Not Trump, In 2016, Sources Say

The Russians didn't fear a Hillary Clinton presidency. “It was a relationship they were comfortable with,” CIA analysts believed

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) listens to then-Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Russia's far eastern port city Vladivostok on September 8, 2012. Australian AFP PHOTO / POOL (Photo credit should read MIKHAIL METZEL/AFP/GettyImages)

It was all a lie.

The Trump-Russia scandal made its formal launch on January 6^th, 2017, when the office of the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper published what’s called an “Intelligence Community Assessment,” or “ICA,” as it’s universally known in Washington.

Release of the ICA dominated headlines, fixed Donald Trump in the minds of millions of Americans as a Manchurian candidate controlled by Vladamir Putin, and upended his in-coming administration.

The report declared that Russia and Putin interfered in the 2016 presidential election to “denigrate” Hillary Clinton and “harm her electability,” thanks to their “clear preference for President-elect [Donald] Trump.”

It was powerful stuff. And it was dead wrong.