Revamped CIA Leadership Raises Scrutiny Amidst 2016 Election Probe

President-elect Donald Trump has made headlines by selecting John Ratcliffe, former Director of National Intelligence, to serve as the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. This decision arrives during a period of significant activity within the American intelligence community as the CIA undertakes renewed scrutiny of past agency leadership and the handling of intelligence related to the 2016 presidential election. The Washington Times states that Ratcliffe, earlier in the month, forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation evidence of alleged wrongdoing by former CIA Director John Brennan. The focus is on Brennan’s actions surrounding the use of the Steele dossier, a controversial and now widely discredited report that shaped the intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election. According to the declassified House Intelligence Committee report, the analytic judgments that tied Trump’s campaign to Russian activities hinged, in part, on what the Ratcliffe report calls unsubstantiated claims. This process, overseen by leaders like Brennan, is now under review as the FBI, at Ratcliffe’s referral, launched criminal investigations into possible perjury and conspiracy related to these matters.

Meanwhile, agency collaboration continues on other high-profile transparency efforts. Just this week, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard formally announced the coordinated release of more than two hundred thousand files concerning the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Junior. The project involved the Justice Department, the CIA under John Ratcliffe’s oversight, as well as the National Archives and Federal Bureau of Investigation. The records, which detail years of investigation and internal communications, emerged after an executive order by President Trump directed the declassification of documents related to historical political assassinations. Director Ratcliffe’s team was directly engaged in managing the technical and security aspects of the CIA’s participation in this sweeping release.

Opinion pieces published in outlets like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution have noted that John Ratcliffe commissioned an internal review of the agency’s analytic standards late last month. The review, finalized and published just before the Fourth of July, reflected Ratcliffe’s insistence that the CIA return to an approach that emphasized analytic rigor, transparency about uncertainty, and clear distinction between substantiated findings and speculation. The review itself did not support some of the more categorical claims currently circulating in Washington, underscoring Ratcliffe’s cautious stance about the agency’s public role.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
President elect Donald Trump has made headlines by selecting John Ratcliffe,
former Director of National Intelligence, to serve as the new
director of the Central Intelligence Agency. This decision arise during
a period of significant activity within the American intelligence community,
as the CIA undertakes renewed scrutiny of past agency leadership

(00:20):
and the handling of intelligence related to the twenty sixteen
presidential election. The Washington Times states that Ratcliffe earlier in
the month forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation evidence
of alleged wrongdoing by former CIA director John Brennan. The
focuses on Brennan's actions surround the use of the Steele Dossier,

(00:40):
a controversial and now widely discredited report that shaped the
intelligence community's assessment of Russian interference in the twenty sixteen election.
According to the declassified House Intelligence Committee report, the analytic
judgments that tied Trump's campaign to Russian activities hinged in
part on what the Ratcliffe report calls unsubstantiated claims. This process,

(01:04):
overseen by leaders like Brennan, is now under review, as
the FBI, at Ratcliffe's referral, launched criminal investigations into possible
perjury and conspiracy related to these matters. Meanwhile, agency collaboration
continues on other high profile transparency efforts. Just this week,
Director of National Intelligence Tulci Gabbard formally announced the coordinated

(01:28):
release of more than two hundred thousand files concerning the
nineteen sixty eight assassination of Martin Luther King Junior. The
project involved the Justice Department, the CIA under John Ratcliffe's oversight,
as well as the National Archives and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The records, which detail years of investigation and internal communications,

(01:49):
emerged after an executive order by President Trump directed the
declassification of documents related to historical political assassinations. Director Ratcliffe's
team was directly engaged in managing the technical and security
aspects of the CIA's participation in this sweeping release. Opinion
pieces published in outlets like the Atlanta Journal Constitution have

(02:12):
noted that John Ratcliffe commissioned an internal review of the
agency's analytics standards late last month. The review, finalized and
published just before the fourth of July, reflected Ratcliffe's insistence
that the CIA returned to an approach that emphasized analytic rigor,
transparency about uncertainty, and clear distinction between substantiated findings and speculation.

(02:36):
The review itself did not support some of the more
categorical claims currently circulating in Washington, underscoring Ratcliffe's cautious stance
about the agency's public role. Thank you for tuning in
and be sure to subscribe. This has been a quiet
please production. For more, check out Quiet Pleas dot a
I