WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th October, 2020) The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) sent a large binder with nearly 1,000 documents to the US Justice Department for an investigation of how the debunked Trump-Russia collusion probe began, ODNI chief John Ratcliffe said.
"At my direction, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has provided almost 1,000 pages of materials to the Department of Justice in response to Mr. [John] Durham's document request, including a new batch that Justice Department lawyers are now able to view immediately," Ratcliffe said in a statement to the Axios news website on Wednesday.
Attorney General William Barr appointed US Attorney John Durham to investigate allegations that Obama administration officials weaponized US intelligence in an attempt to defeat President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and then undermine the Trump presidency.
Trump seeks an expedited declassification and release of materials that he believes will give him a political advantage, presumably ahead of the November 3 election, according to media reports.
The release follows a series of Trump Twitter messages accusing the Obama administration of orchestrating a "treasonous plot" against him by investigating allegations of his campaign's ties to Russia.
An investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller that dominated the first two years of the Trump presidency yielded a report concluding that no collusion had occurred.
Newly released declassified documents implicate former CIA Director John Brennan for having known that the allegations against Trump were untrue and the working of his rival, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and having briefed then President Barack Obama about them.
Trump supporters have long anticipated that the Durham probe will result in indictments of senior Obama administration officials for participating in what they call a coup against the duly elected president.
Thus far, Durham has obtained a single guilty plea from a former FBI lawyer who admitted altering a document needed to obtain a surveillance warrant on former Trump adviser Carter Page.
