U.S. intelligence believed Clinton plot to "stir up a scandal" was a "means of distracting the public from her use of a private mail server."
U.S. intelligence developed evidence from Russia in summer 2016 that Hillary Clinton had personally approved a plan to concoct the Russia collusion narrative in an effort to harm Donald Trump and distract from her email scandal, according to an explosive document made public Tuesday by the Director of National Intelligence.
U.S. officials became so concerned by the Clinton campaign's conduct that they referred the matter to the FBI for investigation, well before the election and before the bureau pursued the concocted story as grounds for getting FISA warrants targeting the Trump campaign and adviser Carter Page, DNI John Ratcliffe's letter shows.
"In late July 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin and the Russians' hacking of the Democratic National Committee," Ratcliffe wrote Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham. "The IC does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication."
You can read the letter here.