The investigation revealed that Russian President Vladimir Putin actually favored Clinton over Trump.
On Thursday, journalists Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag reported that the US intelligence community fabricated claims suggesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election.
In January 2017, an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) released by the US Director of National Intelligence suggested that Putin preferred Trump to win the election.
However, after a thorough investigation, the journalists found that the authors of the assessment fabricated intelligence regarding this claim.
The information was sourced from people close to a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia scandal.
The report further states that the release of the HPSCI investigation findings is being obstructed.
Putin preferred Clinton
According to the report, evidence suggests that Putin actually favored Clinton over Trump.
House investigators discovered that US intelligence analysts possessed information indicating that Russians considered Trump to be unreliable and unsteady.
In contrast, intelligence indicated that Russians viewed Clinton as manageable and likely to continue existing US policies.
The report further notes that former CIA Director John Brennan spearheaded the effort to portray Trump as Putin’s preferred candidate in the ICA.
The HPSCI investigation concluded that the intelligence community conducted the assessment for political motives.
Trump unpredictable
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin characterized his US counterpart, Joe Biden, as being more “predictable” compared to Donald Trump, but asserted that the Kremlin is ready to collaborate with whoever emerges as the victor in November’s election.
When asked by a journalist about Russia’s preference between the likely contesting candidates, the Democratic incumbent and Republican frontrunner Trump, Putin stated: “Biden, he’s more experienced. He’s predictable, he’s an old-school politician.”
