Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Wednesday made available to the Justice Department a massive cache of records on the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election after President Trump pushed for swift release of such documents.
“It’s probably about a foot-tall binder. Hundreds and hundreds of pages,” a source told The Post. “It’s made available to DOJ immediately.”
Justice Department investigators must cross Washington to review the material on-site at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in McLean, Virginia.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Ratcliffe said his office “has now provided almost 1,000 pages of materials to the Department of Justice in response to [Connecticut US Attorney John] Durham’s documents requests.”
Durham is leading a review of the Russia investigation, which Trump often describes as a coup attempt by disgruntled Democrats and “dirty cops.” Special counsel Robert Mueller last year found no evidence of criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
“I will continue to ensure the Intelligence Community’s responsiveness to the DOJ’s requests,” Ratcliffe said.
“We also look forward to supporting the DOJ in further declassifications consistent with their investigation. As the President has made clear, we must be appropriately transparent with the American people and give them the confidence that the extraordinary work of Intelligence professionals is never misused or politicized.”
Ratcliffe on Tuesday released heavily redacted notes from former CIA Director John Brennan that indicate he briefed then-President Barack Obama on an allegation that Hillary Clinton strategically smeared Trump as a Russian colluder in 2016.
The notes indicate that Brennan briefed Obama on “alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 28 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services.”
Ratcliffe also released a heavily redacted investigative referral from the CIA to the FBI that said Clinton’s alleged plan was “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private mail server.”
Ratcliffe publicly disclosed the allegation last week but said the claim against Clinton was unproven and could be an “exaggeration or fabrication.” Clinton allies say it’s potential Russian disinformation.
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said last week the claim was “baseless bulls–t.”
In a series of tweets Tuesday night, Trump pushed for more disclosures and questioned the lack of criminal charges.
“So I had to constantly fight off all of this Scum, achieve more than any other President in First Term, and then they talk Chaos. They created crimes against me and this administration!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Trump wrote that “[a]ll Russia Hoax Scandal information was Declassified by me long ago. Unfortunately for our Country, people have acted very slowly, especially since it is perhaps the biggest political crime in the history of our Country. Act!!!”
In another tweet, the president wrote, “No redactions!”