Declassified Docs: Clinton Approved Plan to frame Trump on Russia

Hillary Clinton approved a plan hatched by a top campaign adviser to “smear” then-candidate Donald Trump with false claims of Russian collusion and distract from her own mounting email scandal during the 2016 campaign, according to explosive intelligence files declassified Thursday.

The intelligence came from two memos obtained by the Obama administration in the lead-up to the Clinton-Trump contest and laid out “confidential conversations” between members of the Democratic National Committee and liberal billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

The plan included “raising the theme of ‘Putin’s support for Trump’” and “subsequently steering public opinion toward the notion that it needs to equate” the Russian leader’s political influence campaign with actual hacking of election infrastructure.

“Clinton approved a plan proposed by one of her foreign policy advisors, Julianne Smith, to ‘smear Donald Trump by magnifying the scandal tied to the intrusion by the Russian special services in the pre-election process to benefit the Republican candidate,’” one of the declassified memos read.

Smith would go on to serve as former President Joe Biden’s ambassador to NATO. “I don’t have any comment,” she told The Post when reached by phone Thursday.

“A two-prong DP [Democratic Party] opposition is focused on discrediting Trump…. [a]mong other things, the Clinton staff, with support from special services, is preparing scandalous revelations of business relations between Trump and the ‘Russian Mafia,’” another declared.

The memos point to then-President Barack Obama potentially seeking to shut down the FBI’s probe of Clinton’s use of a private email server to receive highly classified information while secretary of state.

They also show the origins of a plan to link Trump with Russia around nine months before the 44th president ordered a post-election intelligence assessment claiming the same in December 2016.

That assessment, published in January 2017 included — over the objections of senior CIA officials — details from a since-debunked dossier put together by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, an opposition research project funded in part by Clinton’s campaign and the DNC.

The “special services” cited in one of the memos referred to intelligence activities of Obama’s CIA and FBI, which may have included the work of “Trump dossier author Christopher Steele.”

In March 2016, then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe shared the memos with senior officials at the Department of Justice, suggesting a plot to launch an investigation based on the Democratic campaign document.

Open Society Foundations senior vice president Leonard Bernardo was looped in on the scheme and laid out stages that it was projected to cover.

“During the first stage of the campaign, due to lack of direct evidence, it was decided to disseminate the necessary information through the FBI-affiliated … technical structures … in particular, the Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect companies, from where the information would then be disseminated through leading U.S. publications,” one Bernardo email read.

“The media analysis on the DNC hacking appears solid,” another stated, “Julie [sic] says it will be a long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump. Now it is good for a post-convention bounce. Later the FBI will put more oil into the fire.”

One shocking July 27, 2016, missive noted: “HRC approved Julia’s 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 point is making the Russian play a U.S. domestic issue,” the email also stated. “In absence of direct evidence, Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect will supply the media, and GRU [Russia’s foreign intelligence arm] will hopefully carry on to give more facts.”

Special counsel John Durham uncovered the information during a multi-year probe into intelligence activities during the 2016 election.

Durham consulted the FBI and CIA, both of which assessed that the intelligence was “likely authentic” but couldn’t corroborate exact copies of the Bernardo emails with Open Society Foundations. The CIA also determined that the intelligence was also note “the product of Russian fabrications.”

“Smith was, at minimum, playing a role in the Clinton campaign’s efforts to tie Trump to Russia,” Durham concluded.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and other members of the US Intelligence Community declassified the files from Durham’s probe at the request of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

“Based on the Durham annex, the Obama FBI failed to adequately review and investigate intelligence reports showing the Clinton campaign may have been ginning up the fake Trump-Russia narrative for Clinton’s political gain, which was ultimately done through the Steele Dossier and other means,” Grassley said in a statement.

“These intelligence reports and related records, whether true or false, were buried for years. History will show that the Obama and Biden administration’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies were weaponized against President Trump,” he added.

“This political weaponization has caused critical damage to our institutions and is one of the biggest political scandals and cover-ups in American history. The new Trump administration has a tremendous responsibility to the American people to fix the damage done and do so with maximum speed and transparency.”

Ratcliffe said in a statement that the files — some of which came from the CIA — showed “a coordinated plan to prevent and destroy Donald Trump’s presidency.”

Bondi and Patel insisted that the public disclosures would restore Americans’ trust in the government and provide accountability.

“This Department of Justice, alongside the CIA, is committed to truth and transparency and will continue to support good-faith efforts by Congress to hold our government accountable,” Bondi said. “Chairman Grassley is leading by example and shining light on critical issues of great interest to the American people.”

“The American people deserve the full, unfiltered truth about the Russia collusion hoax and the political abuse of our justice system it exposed,” added Patel. “Today’s declassification and release of documents tied to the Durham report is another step toward that accountability.”

“I’m grateful to Chairman Grassley for his steadfast leadership on this issue, and I look forward to our continued partnership in exposing one of the most shameful frauds ever perpetrated on the American public.”