Russiagate scandal demands prosecutions, overhaul of the FBI and CIA by Tom Fitton, opinion contributor - 08/17/25 11:00 AM ET
 AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
From left, FBI Director James Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and CIA Director John Brennan in February 2016.
Once again, newly released documents and damning evidence conclusively substantiate what many Americans have long suspected. Russiagate was a conspiracy — hatched, implemented and relentlessly promoted by top officials in the CIA, FBI and across the Obama-Biden- Clinton political machine to rig a presidential election and undermine a duly elected president. It also corrupted the very institutions essential to protecting American liberty.
Despite the mountain of evidence and exhaustive investigations, those responsible for this travesty remain unpunished.
Former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, among other intelligence officials, have lied to Congress and the American public about their reliance on the discredited Steele dossier — a report paid for by the Clinton campaign and the DNC — while simultaneously engineering different versions of critical intelligence assessments to cover their tracks.
Although the intelligence community and its leaders publicly maintained that the notorious dossier played no role in the official assessment concerning “ Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections,” newly declassified oversight reviews flatly contradict these claims.
The record shows that Brennan and Clapper prepared a classified, compartmented version of the assessment specifically for President Obama and senior officials, which cited the dossier to bolster key judgments about Russian election interference. Later, when sanitized versions were released to Congress and the public, all references to the dossier had been scrubbed away.
Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation verified that Brennan, Clapper, then-Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director James Comey were all briefed, even before the 2016 election, on the Clinton campaign’s plan to concoct a false Trump-Russia narrative. Still, the FBI — with full knowledge that the Steele dossier was riddled with falsehoods — deployed it to secure baseless FISA warrants against Trump advisor Carter Page and launch the Crossfire Hurricane investigation (the FBI’S codename for the operation), with the intent of sabotaging Trump’s campaign and subsequent presidency.
Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act litigation exposed much of this corruption years before the Durham report. Court-obtained documents, such as the “electronic communication” that launched Crossfire Hurricane, revealed the flimsy and third-hand nature of the intelligence used as pretext.
Other records uncovered by Judicial Watch showed how high-ranking Justice Department officials, such as Bruce Ohr, maintained close ties with Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS, acting as a conduit for anti-Trump smears even after Steele was fired as an informant by the FBI for leaking to the media. Ohr’s communications disclosed that so-called “intelligence” on Trump-Russia ties was being laundered to the Clinton campaign and other government insiders.
It goes deeper. Declassified supplements to the Durham report lay out how activists tied to George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, aided by operatives within the Obama FBI and intelligence community, sought to plant and spread the bogus narrative about Trump colluding with Russia even before the FBI operations officially began. Hacked emails and foreign intelligence corroborated this extraordinary collusion between campaign operatives, federal law enforcement, and the media — a clear case of government being weaponized for partisan ends.
Leaders at the FBI — Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok — and at the CIA, and their superiors in the Obama White House, knew precisely what was unfolding. They were using the intelligence community’s credibility to spread what they knew to be their own fiction as if it were truth. Yet, they pressed ahead anyway, smearing Trump and creating excuses to spy on his campaign.
Their collusion made a mockery of the rule of law, resulting in illegal warrants, fabricated evidence, and years of phony investigations. Recent Judicial Watch lawsuits have further exposed how shamelessly courts and legal systems were deceived, with virtually no oversight or meaningful hearings.
For all it revealed, the Durham investigation resulted in one modest plea deal and few and failed prosecutions. If no one is held to account, Americans’ confidence in government will be shaken by the toxic message that in Washington, the bigger the crime, the less likely it is to be punished.
The FBI and Justice Department, and their enablers in the Obama White House, engineered the most egregious abuse of power and corruption in modern American history. The public deserves justice — not just in the form of reports and hearings, but through criminal prosecution of the officials who orchestrated and covered up this conspiracy.
Brennan, Clapper, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, and every enabler involved must be brought before a court of law. No spin can excuse years of perjury, abuse, and violations of civil liberties. It is not enough to claim that “mistakes were made” or offer platitudes about trust. Laws were broken. Rights were trampled. Our democracy was threatened. News of criminal referrals for perjury by some of the players is a good start, but only that.
Nor will prosecution alone suffice. The FBI and CIA need fundamental reform. Trump’s recent executive orders aimed at ending the “weaponization of government” are steps in the right direction. These agencies have proven incapable of policing themselves. From rubber-stamp FISA courts to politicized counterintelligence and persecution of whistleblowers, these agencies are built on unaccountable power. Significantly cutting back the Justice Department and dismantling the FBI should be on the table.
America is a republic, not a banana republic. It’s time for accountability, reform and a sharp reminder to the deep state: in America, the people are sovereign, not unelected bureaucrats.
Tom Fitton is the president of the government watchdog group Judicial Watch. |
