Biden's 2016 Russia attacks on Trump tied to alleged Clinton plan, declassified intel suggests
Durham report cites 2016 US intel intercepts tying Clinton campaign to strategy to 'vilify' Trump with Russia claims CIA briefed Obama, Biden, and Comey after intercepting alleged Clinton-approved smear strategy, Durham’s findings highlight
ISTANBUL
Then-Vice President Joe Biden was the first major Democrat to publicly connect presidential candidate Donald Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin in July 2016, just as US intelligence allegedly intercepted a Hillary Clinton campaign plan to do exactly that, a right-wing US media outlet reported on Thursday.
According to newly declassified information cited by Just the News, an outlet founded by a former Fox News and Washington Times correspondent, former Special Counsel John Durham’s 2023 report revealed that the "Clinton Plan intelligence" — intercepted by US intel and attributed to Russian spy agencies — alleged that then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a proposal "to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services."
That same day, July 26, 2016, Biden said in an ABC interview: "I think Putin doesn’t want a united NATO … I could see where a lot of our adversaries would think it’s better to have someone who doesn’t have any idea what they’re doing than have somebody as tough (on Russia) as Hillary."
Biden continued to press the narrative in media appearances and his prime-time Democratic National Convention speech, declaring Trump was "embracing dictators like Vladimir Putin."
Intelligence officials told Just the News that Biden’s timing — and the consistency with Russian intercept predictions — raised internal concerns about the plan’s authenticity.
Durham’s report also alleges that in early August 2016, then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed Biden, then-President Barack Obama, and then-FBI Director James Comey on the Clinton strategy.
While Clinton later dismissed the allegations as "really sad" and likely Russian disinformation, US agencies reportedly had the capability to assess the intercepts’ authenticity — though the program involved remains classified.
The ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia were later confirmed by multiple US intelligence reports and a bipartisan congressional committee chaired by Marco Rubio, currently Trump’s US secretary of state.
The Just the News report comes amid efforts by the Trump administration to say reports of these ties were in fact a plot to subvert democracy and that its perpetrators should be prosecuted.
