August 15, 2025
Lie another day: Clapper’s six-line marching orders that shaped Russiagate
By Charlton Allen
“That’s OUR story, and we’re stickin’ to it.” It sounds like a line from a cornered suspect—whose name has been changed to protect the (not so) innocent—in Dragnet. Or rather, a Three Stooges short. Wise guy, eh?
But no. It came from James Clapper, then the nation’s Director of National Intelligence, in an email to America’s spy chiefs on December 22, 2016.
This newly declassified message, short enough to fit on an index card, is a political Rosetta Stone for the Russia-Trump saga that followed.
Every sentence, every clause, every word, and every point of emphasis underscored the unmistakable message: This is our plan. This is the schedule. We will bend the rules. You will not see all the intel. And there will be no dissent. Deal with it.
At the time, the Obama White House had ordered an “Intelligence Community Assessment” on Russian election interference—yet inside the intelligence agencies, deep and abiding doubts about the conclusions, the sourcing, and the compressed timetable were tamped down and suppressed.
Admiral Mike Rogers of the NSA had raised significant concerns about access and verification. Clapper’s response? A curt directive that left no doubt he expected complete alignment.
But don’t take my word for it—here is Clapper’s email, verbatim:
Mike/John/Jim:
Understand your concern. It is essential that we (CIA/NSA/FBI/ODNI) be on the same page, and are all supportive of the report — in the highest tradition of ‘that’s OUR story, and we’re stickin’ to it.’ This evening CIA has provided to the NIC the complete draft generated by the ad hoc fusion cell. We will facilitate as much mutual transparency as possible as we complete the report, but more time is not negotiable. We may have to compromise on our ‘normal’ modalities, since we must do this on such a compressed schedule.
This is one project that has to be a team sport.
Jim
[email from James R. Clapper, 22 December 2016) (emphasis in original].
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/08/lie_another_day_clapper_s_six_line_marching_orders_that_shaped_russiagate.html
