Declassified documents have exposed a calculated plot by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign to smear Donald Trump with allegations of Russian ties, a plan led by then-Vice President Joe Biden, as Just the News reports. The Durham report’s 2023 appendix unveils intercepted intelligence revealing this strategy, painting a grim picture of political manipulation. It’s a stark reminder of how far the left will go to cling to power.
In late July 2016, Biden spearheaded efforts to tie Trump to Vladimir Putin, aligning with a Clinton campaign plan approved on July 26, according to Durham's work. U.S. intelligence intercepted communications suggesting Clinton’s team aimed to vilify Trump by falsely linking him to Russian interference. The timing of Biden’s attacks during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) raises eyebrows about coordinated political theater.
Biden’s public offensive began at the DNC, where he claimed Putin preferred Trump over Clinton in an ABC News interview on July 26. “I’ve traveled over a million miles ... Putin doesn’t want a united NATO,” Biden told George Stephanopoulos, framing Trump as a Kremlin ally. The accusation, dripping with innuendo, set the stage for a narrative the left hoped would stick.
On July 27, Biden doubled down on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, suggesting that Trump’s actions served Putin’s goal of weakening NATO. He scoffed at Trump’s NATO stance, claiming, “I don’t think he knows what Article Five is.” This wasn’t policy critique -- it was a deliberate jab to paint Trump as a Russian puppet.
That same day, Biden’s DNC speech escalated the rhetoric, accusing Trump of “embracing dictators like Vladimir Putin.” The line, meant to inflame, ignored Trump’s actual positions while pushing a fear-driven narrative. It’s the kind of hyperbole that thrives in a woke echo chamber but crumbles under scrutiny.
Intercepted communications, including emails from a George Soros ally at the Open Society Foundations, hinted at Clinton’s team plotting to amplify this narrative through the FBI. A source familiar with the intelligence confirmed some intercepts’ authenticity using classified tools. Yet, Leonard Benardo, a Soros associate, denied writing the emails, calling the claims “malicious disinformation.”
The Durham report notes that the Intelligence Community received this Clinton Plan intelligence in late July 2016. Then-CIA Director John Brennan’s handwritten notes reveal he briefed Biden, then-President Barack Obama, and then-FBI Director James Comey in early August about Clinton’s alleged approval of the smear. The fact that events unfolded as predicted in the intercepts lends credibility to the intelligence, despite some CIA officials calling it a “composite.”
Clinton campaign advisors, like Julianne Smith, were knee-deep in the effort. On July 25, Smith texted about seeking Biden’s office and intelligence community input on the DNC hack investigation. Her July 27 email pushed for a bipartisan statement slamming Trump’s NATO stance, proving the campaign’s intent to weaponize the Russia narrative.
By July 28, Obama joined the fray, claiming in his DNC speech that Trump “cozies up to Putin.” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest backed Biden’s dictator label, citing a State Department report on Russia’s authoritarian system. The coordinated pile-on reeks of a script designed to bury Trump in suspicion.
Clinton’s DNC speech on July 29 avoided directly naming Trump but emphasized standing against Russia, keeping the narrative alive. Her campaign’s fingerprints were all over the effort, with text messages showing advisors looping in Biden’s office. Jake Sullivan, another top administration advisor, dismissed the Durham allegations as “ridiculous,” but the evidence suggests otherwise.
In mid-August, Biden campaigned with Clinton in Scranton, Pennsylvania, outrageously claiming Trump “would have loved Stalin.” The hyperbole was laughable, yet it fueled the media’s Trump-Putin obsession. It’s the kind of overreach that exposes the left’s desperation to control the narrative.
Biden’s late August Latvia visit saw him reaffirm NATO commitments while dismissing Trump’s statements as unserious. “We have pledged our sacred honor ... to the NATO treaty,” he declared, subtly jabbing Trump. The trip was less about diplomacy and more about keeping the Russia smear front and center.
By mid-October, Biden told Meet the Press the U.S. would respond to Russia’s alleged hacking at its choosing. The vague threat kept the Russia-Trump connection simmering, with no concrete evidence tying Trump to cyberattacks. It was a masterclass in innuendo over substance.
On Oct. 31, Clinton tweeted about a supposed covert server linking Trump’s organization to a Russian bank, backed by Sullivan’s statement calling it a “secret hotline.” The claim, later debunked, shows how far the campaign went to sell the lie. The media lapped it up, proving their complicity in the smear.
The Durham report’s revelations expose this Trump-Putin narrative as a political dirty trick, orchestrated by Clinton’s team and amplified by Biden. While some FBI analysts doubted the intercepts, the CIA’s 2017 assessment deemed them credible. The left’s playbook -- smear, amplify, repeat -- relied on a compliant media and a public too distracted to question the truth.
