CIA Director John Ratcliffe, joined at center by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, testifies as the Senate Intelligence Committee holds its worldwide threats hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Tuesday, March 25. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
"Ultimately, the release of the classified annex will lend more credibility to the assertion that there was a coordinated plan inside the U.S. government to help the Clinton campaign stir up controversy connecting Trump to Russia," the source, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters that have not yet been made public, told Fox News Digital.
"Mere days after this intelligence was collected, the FBI launched Crossfire Hurricane," the source said. "It’s really hard to see how Brennan, Clapper and Comey are going to be able to explain this away."
In 2020, Fox News Digital exclusively reported that former CIA Director John Brennan, in the summer of 2016, briefed former President Barack Obama and administration officials on intelligence that then-Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Clinton was stirring up a plan to tie Trump to Russia.
President Barack Obama speaks to the media after meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch (left) and FBI Director James Comey in the Oval Office at the White House July 19, 2016, in Washington, D.C. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
"Per FBI verbal request, CIA provides the below examples of information the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE fusion cell has gleaned to date," the memo continued. "An exchange (REDACTED) discussing US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s approval of a plan concerning US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server."
The FBI on July 31, 2016, opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether candidate Trump and members of his campaign were colluding or coordinating with Russia to influence the 2016 campaign. That investigation was referred to inside the bureau as "Crossfire Hurricane."
The source told Fox News Digital on Monday that the declassification and release of the classified annex is being done with close coordination between Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and acting National Security Agency Director William Hartman— along with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who will ultimately release the document to the public.
Special Counsel John Durham indicated the Department of Justice and FBI "failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law" when it launched the Trump-Russia investigation. (Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images)
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to take over the FBI’s original "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation. After nearly two years, Mueller’s investigation, which concluded in March 2019, yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election.
EXCLUSIVE: FBI LAUNCHES CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS OF JOHN BRENNAN, JAMES COMEY: DOJ SOURCES
Shortly after, John Durham was appointed as special counsel to investigate the origins of the "Crossfire Hurricane" probe.
Durham found that the FBI "failed to act" on a "clear warning sign" that the bureau was the "target" of a Clinton-led effort to "manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes" ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
"The aforementioned facts reflect a rather startling and inexplicable failure to adequately consider and incorporate the Clinton Plan intelligence into the FBI’s investigative decision-making in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation," Durham’s report states.
Robert Mueller, former special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice. (AP newsroom | Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Mike Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times)
"Indeed, had the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation as an assessment and, in turn, gathered and analyzed data in concert with the information from the Clinton Plan intelligence, it is likely that the information received would have been examined, at a minimum, with a more critical eye," the report continued.
Durham, in his report, said the FBI "failed to act on what should have been—when combined with other incontrovertible facts— a clear warning sign that the FBI might then be the target of an effort to manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes during the 2016 presidential election."
On Sunday, during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures," Ratcliffe previewed the declassification and the release of the "classified annex" to the Durham report. Ratcliffe said it would be an overview of Durham’s findings.
"What the intelligence shows..is that part of this was a Hillary Clinton plan, but part of it was an FBI plan to be an accelerant to the fake Steele dossier, to those fake Russia collusion claims by pouring oil on the fire, by amplifying the lie and burying the truth of what Hillary Clinton was up to," Ratcliffe said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The expected release of the declassified annex comes after Ratcliffe and Gabbard released declassified records revealing that Obama administration officials "manufactured" intelligence to push the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
FBI Director Kash Patel has opened criminal investigations into Brennan and Comey, and Gabbard sent criminal referrals to additional Obama-era officials.
Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbis-controversial-trump-russia-actions-predicted-alarming-specificity-foreign-actors-sources