Newly declassified documents reveal that the National Security Agency (NSA) blocked the release of a report on U.S. elections due to concerns that it would be labeled as part of the “deep state.”
“DDIR explained that he was concerned that releasing the [report] at this time – in the current political climate, with an acting ODNI who had been tasked (according to DDIR) to ‘clean house’ in the intelligence community, and with an administration that is suspicious of the IC [Intelligence Community] and aggressive in removing anyone who stands in their way – would damage NSA’s credibility,” a memo on the matter obtained by Just the News says. “He believed that questions would be asked as to why the NSA was choosing to release this information, most obviously pertinent to the 2016 election, now, more than a year after the election, and that NSA would be accused of releasing it for political purposes.”
The memo, from March 13, 2020, was written by an analyst behind the report. “DDIR perceived that ODNI, CIA, and to an extent the FBI had been tarred as hosting or being part of the ‘deep state’, but that NSA thus far had not been associated with the deep state and was trusted; he felt that publishing this report would destroy that trust,” it adds.
“He felt that the questioning of NSA that would ensue would have ramifications on the credibility of NSA reporting overall and would result in morale problems among the broader NSA workforce. He repeatedly said that he wanted to protect our ability to be who we are at NSA: nonpartisan, objective, speaking truth to power.”
A separate set of declassified documents recently released by White House Transparency Task Force head John Solomon revealed that intelligence agencies considered criticism of former President Joe Biden to be Russian disinformation.
The campaign to neutralize negative information surrounding the Bidens was called “Round River,” an FBI operation targeting journalists, Trump administration officials, and members of Congress. A declassified spreadsheet on the matter found the labeling of Russian “conduits” to be partisan. Figures like the Bidens, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama and George Soros were considered “targets,” while conservatives such as Michael Caputo, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Mike Pompeo, Bill Bar, and Sens. Chuck Grassley, Ron Johnson, and Lindsey Graham, as well as Reps. Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan were “conduits.”
