Obama intel chiefs gave Russia a pass, and now blame — Donald Trump?
By Monica Crowley, opinion contributor — 07/23/18 08:15 AM EDT
Long before the 2016 election, when Donald Trump was a mere private citizen, Russia was engaged in widespread cyber-aggression against the United States. Moscow racheted up those attacks during the campaign. And yet, despite knowledge of the ongoing cyberwarfare, the president at the time, Barack Obama, and his intelligence chiefs — John Brennan at the CIA, James Clapper at National Intelligence, James Comey and his predecessor, Robert Mueller, at the FBI — reportedly didn’t lift a finger to stop it.
Why? Because the Obama administration was obsessed with protecting its bigger agenda: namely, closing and implementing the Iran nuclear deal and trying to save their collapsed Russian “reset.†Calling Russia on its malign cyber activity would have imperiled both initiatives, so Obama and his intel team apparently chose to ignore it, even as it escalated.
After Trump’s shocking election victory, however, the administration switched gears and began waging a sinister campaign against him to deflect attention from their own gross failures, duplicity and actual collusion.
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http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/398299-obama-intel-chiefs-gave-russia-a-pass-and-now-blame-donald-trump
