Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said special counsel John Durham's investigation into the Trump-Russia probe is "revealing some of the details" of a plan by Hillary Clinton's 2016 team to sell "a false narrative" to the FBI and CIA.
Ratcliffe, appearing Sunday night on Fox News Channel, said Durham's revelations are in addition to an already abundance of intelligence showing bogus allegations of collusion between former President Donald Trump and Russia.
"What I saw, that I had never seen as a member of Congress, was we have all kinds of intelligence about fake Russia collusion,” Ratcliffe, who represented Texas in the House from 2015-2020, told host Mark Levin, the Washington Examiner reported.
"That Hillary Clinton had created or had a campaign plan to create fake Russian allegations to smear Donald Trump with things about Russia that weren't true."
Ratcliffe added that it was possible the Durham findings could lead to conspiracy charges.
While acknowledging that campaigns often engage in dirty tricks, the former Trump national security director said Durham's probe is focusing on things beyond underhanded political tactics.
Attorney Michael Sussmann has been indicted for making false statements to the FBI. He is accused of telling the agency's top lawyer that he was not representing any clients when, acting on behalf of a technology executive and Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign during a September 2016 meeting, discussed data and research papers with possible links between the Trump Organization and Russia's Alfa Bank.
"What is illegal is that when you create a false narrative and then you take it to the FBI and the CIA and peddle it as real, hoping to authenticate it by opening an investigation, that's all sorts of criminal activity," Ratcliffe told Levin.
"It starts with lying to federal agents, for which Michael Sussmann and others have been charged, 18 US Code § 1001 counts, but it goes all the way up to conspiracy, possibly even to racketeering, to RICO charges."
As director last fall, Ratcliffe released two heavily redacted Russia-related documents including handwritten notes from former CIA Director John Brennan to then-President Barack Obama in 2016 on an unverified Russian intelligence report.
That unverified report claimed Clinton, in July 2016, planned on tying then-candidate Trump to Russia's hack of the Democratic National Committee to distract from the controversy surrounding her improper use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state, Fox News said.
Ratcliffe told Levin that he "shared a lot of intelligence" with Durham, and "not just what's been declassified."
The former national intelligence director added that his message to Durham was, "look this just isn't right, this doesn't add up, all sorts of people knew about this and didn't do anything about it."
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