CIA book on Trump briefings more interesting for what it omits

[Geee]

Washington Examiner

A CIA book claiming to present the definitive history on the intelligence community’s briefings of former President Donald Trump fails to mention that the FBI used briefings as a pretext to glean information for the Trump-Russia investigation.

The fourth edition of the book Getting to Know the President, written by retired CIA officer John Helgerson, was released over the weekend with a new ninth chapter on Trump.

 

t claims that “historically, political imbroglios involving the Intelligence Community during transition periods had usually arisen because one or another of the agencies had done something controversial or ill-advised” but that “in 2016, by contrast, the intelligence agencies were drawn into political quagmires initiated by others that were, nevertheless, important for the Community because they badly strained its relationship with the new president and his party.”

In reality, many of the problems facing the intelligence community were self-inflicted as the FBI ran a flawed investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign while relying heavily upon the Clinton campaign-funded and discredited Steele dossier.

 

Unmentioned in the new chapter is the fact that the FBI’s first intelligence briefing of candidate Trump in August 2016 was used as a "pretext" to investigate him and his then-foreign policy adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn.

It also fails to mention that then-FBI Director James Comey’s briefing of Trump on the dossier in January 2017 was used as an opportunity to try to advance the Crossfire Hurricane inquiry.