The person whose name was redacted suggested another edit: that the dossier had been widely circulated. That sentence didn’t make it into the final version because ODNI was concerned the statement “could be thrown back at us,” given high-profile leaks by NSA contractors Edward Snowden and Harold Martin. The passage said, “In my experience, members of the IC are keenly aware of the importance of protecting classified and sensitive information and of their sworn obligation to do so.” "I was trying to write how we in the IC became aware of the dossier since I was not personally aware of how it happened etc.," he said.Īnother passage that was cut from Clapper’s draft statement addressed the flurry of leaks to the media in the lead-up to the inauguration. Hale accepted the change, writing in an email that it was “better.” Hale told BuzzFeed News the original line was a "typo." “One substantive thought: Should we say that the document was ‘given to us?’ Or better to say it circulated before the IC ‘became aware of it,’” the person wrote, referring to the intelligence community. Clapper’s draft statement contains several notable passages that were omitted from the final version publicly released on ODNI’s website.įor example, an early version of Clapper’s statement says the dossier “was given to us.” But an ODNI official who reviewed it - the person’s name was redacted in the emails - suggested it be changed. Mike Rogers, the NSA director, held with Trump in which they discussed the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia had interfered in the presidential election, as well as the salacious claims contained in the dossier, prepared by Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer.Īccording to the internal ODNI emails obtained by BuzzFeed News, Clapper told Trump he would issue a statement addressing the controversy surrounding the publication of the dossier and leaks in general.īuzzFeed News has obtained the original draft of Clapper’s three-paragraph statement, written by Brian Hale, ODNI’s director of public affairs. 6, 2017, meeting Clapper, FBI director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan and Adm. The statement also came on the heels of a Jan. 11, 2017, one day after BuzzFeed News published the 35-page document, top officials at ODNI began to draft a statement for James Clapper, then ODNI’s director and a fierce critic of Trump, to address the dossier’s unverified claims and leaks to the media about the president-elect. Top spies also resisted pressure from President Donald Trump to dismiss the dossier as “bogus,” according to the emails. The office issued a statement, which contained incomplete information, because intelligence officials were concerned the office might be accused of having leaked the dossier, the emails between intelligence officials show. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence deliberately concealed how the agency came into possession of a dossier prepared by a former British intelligence officer that alleged Russians had been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Donald Trump for years, according to internal emails obtained by BuzzFeed News under the Freedom of Information Act.
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