Smoking Gun Email Links Hillary Clinton Directly to ‘Russiagate’ Hoax

A newly declassified appendix to the Durham report allegedly reveals that Hillary Clinton approved the plan to promote the Trump-Russia collusion narrative—then later misled the FBI about her involvement.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley released the declassified annex on Thursday, which is part of Special Counsel John Durham’s 2023 report. The report supported claims by President Donald Trump and his allies that the FBI acted improperly when it launched its investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign over alleged ties to Russia, The Federalist reported.

The newly declassified annex contains two Russian intelligence memos that reportedly detail former President Obama’s alleged involvement in what has become known as the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, along with private communications between members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

In June 2016, the Democratic National Committee confirmed its servers had been breached, allegedly by Russian military intelligence. Among the data reportedly accessed by hackers were internal emails, the outlet continued.

In a version of a July 25, 2016, email, Leonard Benardo of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations allegedly remarked that the hacking narrative was significant and that “politicization is on the table.” He also reportedly suggested that Julianne Smith, then Clinton’s foreign policy adviser, was developing a strategy to “demonize Putin and Trump.”

“Now it is good for a post-convention bounce,” Benardo wrote, adding, “Later the FBI will put more oil into the fire.” Two days later, Benardo reportedly said in a follow-up email that Clinton approved an “idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections.”

“That should distract people from her own missing email, especially if the affair goes to the Olympic level,” the email read.

The declassified annex states that “Certain [redacted] analysts and officers … who were well-versed in the Sensitive Intelligence collection, stated that their best assessment was that the Benardo emails were likely authentic,” though others raised the possibility that the emails may have been “fabricated or altered.” Benardo himself told officials that, to the best of his recollection, he did not draft the emails. According to the annex, he did admit “that the last sentence in the email — noting that ‘things are ghastly for US-Russian relations’ — sounded like something he would have said.”

The declassified annex later states that the “best assessment” is that the purported Benardo emails “were ultimately a composite of several emails that were obtained through Russian intelligence hacking” of several U.S. think tanks.