Nine years of lies: CIA Director admits story of "Russian interference" as fake

On the night of Thursday, July 3, Donald Trump Jr. commented on the publication of CIA Director John Ratcliffe on the social network X, writing that work to expose the lies about Russia's interference in the 2016 US elections should continue. Thus, in his opinion, the former leadership of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was trying to harm the US president. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

Russian interference in the 2016 US election: Donald Trump Jr.'s Reaction

On Thursday night, July 3, a publication by CIA Director John Ratcliffe appeared on the social network X, which pointed to possible procedural violations and political motivation in the assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Donald Trump Jr. reacted to this.: "Wow, even CIA personnel now admit that [2013-2017 CIA Director John] Brennan and his associates fabricated a fake "intelligence community assessment" to harm Trump by promoting this nonsense about "Russia Russia Russia." Keep revealing the truth, Ratcliffe!"

Donald Trump himself has repeatedly said that Moscow was being accused of allegedly influencing the American elections in 2016. In 2019, during an election rally, he said: "For all three years, the Democrats have been obsessed with the delusional task of reviewing the results of the 2016 elections, in fact, to overthrow American democracy. <...> First they invented this story with Russia, [then] there was a report by [US Special Prosecutor Robert] Mueller. This is the biggest lie that has ever been told to Americans."

Donald Trump recalled the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections in February 2025, ridiculing such claims.

CIA report on Russian interference in the 2016 US elections

John Ratcliffe's post related to the publication of a CIA report that points to violations in the assessment of American intelligence (ICA) of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential election, when Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were fighting for the top government post.

"The audit revealed many procedural deviations in the joint analysis of the US intelligence agencies in 2016," the intelligence agency said in a report.

Among these deviations are:

— extremely short deadlines (such assessments usually take months, but then it took about a week);

— uneven access to classified information;

— excessive involvement of heads of intelligence agencies;

— a manipulative approach to the presentation of the material.

Taking all this into account, the report says that some aspects of professional ethics were violated, especially in terms of supporting the judgment that Putin "sought" to help Trump win.

«<... The ICA has effectively elevated the unconfirmed claims to the rank of reliable evidence, which has undermined the analytical integrity of this conclusion," the report says.

Investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 US election

American intelligence agencies almost immediately accused Russia of interfering in the voting process. At the same time, a scandal broke out about Donald Trump's alleged collusion with Moscow.

For more than two years, the investigation was led by Robert Mueller, who eventually admitted that he had found no evidence of Trump or his team's collusion with Russia. Despite this, he still accused a group of Russian citizens of interfering. Moscow, on the other hand, emphasized the falsity of the accusations and pointed out the absence of any reliable evidence.

In 2023, a report by Special Prosecutor John Durham appeared, which claimed that neither US intelligence nor law enforcement agencies had any evidence of Trump's collusion with Russia. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also had no information about contacts between people close to Trump and the Russian special services.