John Brennan must be held accountable for his role in advancing the Russia hoax

The president has been exonerated on allegations of Russian collusion, and now, as investigators and the media pick up the pieces on the long-running hoax, more attention has turned to the major players behind the operation, including former CIA chief and current NBC “analyst” John Brennan, who played an integral role in the launch of the unprecedented surveillance operation — and the smear campaign thereafter — against the president, members of the Trump campaign, and Trump-connected individuals.

Brennan’s personal role in the Trump-Russia collusion saga dates back to at least the summer of 2016 (and perhaps even earlier) when he met with a top British intelligence chief to discuss Trump’s supposed ties to the Russians. Around the time of that meeting, and following its conclusion, American and foreign spies began to make contact with members of the Trump campaign, with some claiming to have access to Russian secrets involving the Hillary Clinton campaign. Brennan later seemed to take credit and defend the espionage operation, which again, relied on the dossier to legitimize spying on Americans.

Brennan, as CIA director, reportedly inserted the Clinton-funded-and-manufactured Steele dossier into a draft version of the highly scandalous Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian interference, which was published under the auspices of Donald Trump’s political opponents in early January 2017, just two weeks before President-elect Trump took office.

In March, citing a “high-level source,” Sen. Rand Paul said that Brennan “insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier” be included in the ICA.

The intel assessment, which dramatically overstated the Kremlin’s 2016 campaign to interfere in American politics (in truth, Moscow engaged in an unsophisticated, low-funded propaganda campaign to sow discord), later served as the basis for special counsel’s Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The Mueller probe in turn served to delegitimize the president in the eyes of millions of Americans.