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Sen. Grassley releases newly declassified documents, reveals Hillary Clinton's FusionGPS/"Russia Dossier" plan to smear Trump in 2016 election

  • July 20, 2025


    WASHINGTON (TNND) — A newly declassified annex to the 2023 Durham report has unveiled fresh details regarding the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The report includes previously unseen memos suggesting that then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton approved a plan to "smear Donald Trump by magnifying the scandal tied to the intrusion by the Russian special services."

    "I think it’s evidence of the great depth that the Deep State will go to to cover up weaponization that was going on in the FBI and the executive branch of government generally that was going on under the Obama administration," Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News after he released the annex.


    The annex also indicates that part of the plan was intended to distract from Clinton’s email scandal. This correspondence occurred as the FBI and intelligence services were investigating potential Russian influence and meddling in the election, as well as any ties to Trump, in an operation known as Crossfire Hurricane. The 2023 Durham report concluded that the FBI mishandled the investigation into Russian interference and alleged collusion with Trump, describing it as "seriously flawed."

    "This is further evidence that Hillary Clinton approved the Russia hoax against President Trump, her campaign financed it, again she approved it," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday.

    The newly released documents are part of a series of files disclosed by the Trump administration.
    Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has alleged that there is evidence against former President Barack Obama of treason, claiming that the former president and his allies manufactured intelligence to prevent Trump from being elected, by linking him to Russia.

    Ahead of the latest document's release, former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper criticized the Trump administration's claims in a New York Times op-ed. They accused the administration of attempting "to rewrite history" and defended the intelligence community's findings, asserting, "Every serious review has substantiated the intelligence community’s fundamental conclusion that the Russians conducted an influence campaign intended to help Mr. Trump win the 2016 election." Clapper and Brennan also wrote, "contrary to the Trump administration’s wild and baseless claims, there was no mention of “collusion” between the Trump campaign and the Russians in the assessment, nor any reference to the publicly acknowledged contacts that had taken place.

    “The last couple of weeks, the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe have been putting out very misleading and inaccurate reports about what was included in that intelligence community assessment," Brennan told MSNBC.