Former CIA Director John Brennan commented on comments from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that he could be vulnerable for charges of perjury for lying to Congress. “Tulsi Gabbard-she may be impaired on the ethics front, certainly. But she’s not impaired on the intellect front. So I can only presume that she is doing this intentionally-intentionally mischaracterizing, misrepresenting, and lying about what she has found,” Brennan told MSNBC Thursday evening.

JOHN BRENNAN: Well, it’s more what Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe are missing-which is the facts. And the fact that Donald Trump is now saying that Barack Obama was the head of this conspiracy is just so absurd. Now, I certainly understand why Donald Trump has such a deep-seated inferiority complex vis-a-vis Barack Obama, given their respective records. And also, it’s quite remarkable-the coincidence of timing between the release of these documents, which seem to have been pulled together in a very short period of time, compared to the multi-year investigations and reviews that were done about this issue-and the furor that’s now erupting around the Epstein files. Again, I think it’s very suspicious in terms of the motivations here. But what is particularly appalling-and I think insulting to the intelligence profession-is the misrepresentation of what was in that Intelligence Community Assessment. It is incontrovertible that the Russians tried to influence the 2016 election by using its information operations. They were hurting Hillary Clinton. They were trying to help Donald Trump. They were trying to undermine the integrity of the election. And what Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe are saying now-they’re pointing to this issue of whether the Russians altered the votes. Well, we said that very explicitly in the Intelligence Community Assessment. We said the Russians had accessed a number of voter registration systems and email accounts of electoral boards, whatever else, but they didn’t appear to have the ability to access those systems that could actually manipulate and alter the votes or affect the vote tabulation. So they keep saying these things, making these allegations that are without foundation at all, and claiming that there was this vast conspiracy-that we were, in fact, deceiving the American people and engaged in this coup. Again, it’s very clear in my mind that there’s a political motivation for this. And unfortunately, it’s an insult to the intelligence profession. Because there were so many people who worked on that Intelligence Community Assessment to make sure that people understood exactly what the Russians did in 2016 and what they were capable of doing in the future-which is why President Obama asked us to put it together. He didn’t tell us what to write. I didn’t write that report, nor did Jim Clapper. We had the experts-those who were steeped in understanding Russia, understanding exactly their capabilities, what they do on the covert influence front, and other things. So, again, I feel very confident that if people take a look at this-and I wish Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe would read the assessment… Tulsi Gabbard-she may be impaired on the ethics front, certainly. But she’s not impaired on the intellect front. So I can only presume that she is doing this intentionally-intentionally mischaracterizing, misrepresenting, and lying about what she has found. JEN PSAKI: Don’t you think the timing is about the Epstein files and changing the subject? JOHN BRENNAN: It is a remarkable coincidence. Yes. It’s unfortunate. They’ve now disinterred an Intelligence Community Assessment from eight and a half years ago and are holding it out like it’s some great explosion-like they’ve suddenly pulled out information in just a few short months or weeks that contradicts all the findings of the Mueller investigation, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, the Durham investigation-all of which validated those original findings and conclusions. But again, that Intelligence Community Assessment made very clear what we found the Russians were doing-and what we found they did not do, which was: they did not alter the votes cast in that 2016 presidential election.

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