Republicans rejected a report as 'Russian disinformation' -- but it was just declassified by John Ratcliffe

One of the many concerns that Democrats had when Rep. John Ratcliffe was appointed as the Director of National Intelligence is that he is a conspiracy theorist

Politico reported Tuesday that Rep John Ratcliffe just declassified and published a report that Republicans already deemed to be "Russian disinformation" and has no basis in fact.

The discredited report was given to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which Democrats denounced as putting propaganda into the public sphere to help President Donald Trump's lies about being personally wiretapped by Joe Biden at Trump Tower. Every American intelligence agency as well as the Justice Department has discredited the report.

The false report alleges that Hillary Clinton started the Russian coordination with the Trump campaign in 2016.

Ratcliffe incorrectly said the U.S. intelligence community “does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.” The intelligence community has already called it false. As DNI it's unclear why Ratcliffe doesn't know that.

Graham is in the race of his political career and begging for campaign cash on Fox News, so it's unusual to see a senator push such false information. He asked in a letter, “[t]he question is did the FBI investigate the allegations against Clinton like they did Trump? If not, why not?”

The answer, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee, is because the allegations against Clinton were false Russian Propaganda.

“This is Russian disinformation,” Politico cited Rachel Cohen, a spokeswoman for Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.). She claimed it was “laundered by the Director Of National Intelligence and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.”

Read the full report from Politico.