(George Soros (left) and Hillary Clinton (right) )
A source familiar with the contents of the classified appendix told Fox News Digital that while it may not have been exactly clear in the moment what the intelligence collection meant, with the benefit of hindsight, it predicted the FBI’s next move "with alarming specificity."
The appendix reveals that the foreign sources were allegedly tied to George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
The appendix said that Russian government actors in 2016 reportedly hacked emails from the Open Society Foundations, formerly known as the Soros Foundation.
"Two of the apparently hacked emails appear to have originated from the Open Society Foundations," the appendix states, noting that the purported author of these emails was Leonard Bernardo, who was the regional director for Eurasia at the Open Society Foundations.
"During the first stage of the campaign, due to lack of direct evidence, it was decided to disseminate the necessary information through the FBI-affiliated…technical structures… in particular, the Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect companies, from where the information would then be disseminated through leading U.S. publications," Bernardo reportedly wrote in an email, per the appendix.
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)
"It is a logical deduction (redacted) (Julianne) Smith was, at minimum, playing a role in the Clinton campaign’s efforts to tie Trump to Russia," Durham writes, also noting that the communications reviewed "certainly lends at least some credence that such a plan existed."
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 reportedly was stirring up a plan to tie Trump to Russia.
Ratcliffe, as director of national intelligence, declassified Brennan’s handwritten notes memorializing that meeting, which were exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital in October 2020.
On July 28, 2016, Brennan briefed Obama on a plan allegedly by one of Clinton's campaign foreign policy advisors "to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service."
Comey, then-Vice President Joe Biden, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were at the Brennan–Obama briefing.
The declassification and release of the classified annex was done with close coordination between Ratcliffe, Patel, Gabbard, Bondi and acting National Security Agency Director William Hartman — along with Grassley, who ultimately released the document to the public. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The declassification and release of the classified annex was done with close coordination between Ratcliffe, Patel, Gabbard, Bondi and acting National Security Agency Director William Hartman — along with Grassley, who ultimately released the document to the public.
Meanwhile, while Ratcliffe was director of National Intelligence in 2020, he provided intelligence to Durham as part of a larger trove of more than 1,000 documents.
FLASHBACK: RATCLIFFE SAYS ODNI HAS PROVIDED NEARLY 1,000 DOCUMENTS TO DOJ TO SUPPORT DURHAM PROBE
A former senior Trump official told Fox News Digital that Ratcliffe advocated for releasing the intelligence publicly then, but that Durham, who, at the time, was expected to release an interim report prior to the 2020 election, declined on the basis that it could negatively impact his investigation, which had not yet reached a determination on potential prosecutions.
"Durham said he wanted to preserve his investigation but was going to release an interim report," the former official told Fox News Digital. "Then he said he was afraid he’d get accused of politicization and disappeared."
The source added: "Thankfully the real politicization is all coming to light now."
The credible foreign sources indicating the FBI and the Obama administration would play a role in spreading the salacious Trump-Russia narrative — before the bureau ever launched its probe — were allegedly tied to George Soros' Open Society Foundation. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
"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.
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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."
Fox News Digital reached out to Soros and Bernardo for comment and has yet to receive a reply.
Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/soros-alleged-ties-russiagate-exposed-declassified-annex-durham-report