⁍ Current and former U.S. officials say CIA Director Gina Haspel and NSA Director Paul Nakasone opposed the material’s release.

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⁍ The disclosure comes after Democrats and former U.S. intelligence officials alleged Ratcliffe made it public for the political purpose of helping President Donald Trump.

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⁍ Three U.S. officials and a former U.S. intelligence official said Haspel resisted the material’s release.

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– John Ratcliffe’s decision to declassify and send to Sen. Lindsey Graham unverified Russian intelligence he says may have been fabricated was opposed by the head of the CIA and the head of the NSA, sources tell Reuters. Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence, provided Graham with a declassified letter he said came from a Russian intelligence analysis that claimed Hillary Clinton had approved a plan to create “a scandal” by tying President Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff on Wednesday accused Ratcliffe of “selective declassification” of “intelligence which he acknowledges may be fabricated” for political purposes, the Washington Post reports. “I cannot remember an instance where the intelligence community declassified information that may or may not be accurate,” says John Mossman, a former senior CIA official who served as staff director for the Senate Intelligence Committee. Graham, a critic of the Robert Mueller investigation, cited the material from Ratcliffe on Wednesday as he chaired a judiciary committee hearing featuring former FBI Director James Comey. In his letter, Ratcliffe said a Russian intelligence analysis alleged that Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, approved a plan to create ‘a scandal’ by tying Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian hacking of Democratic National Committee computers. Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who the Senate narrowly confirmed in May as director of national intelligence, provided the material despite noting that it was unverified by US intelligence agencies and “may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.” The material contradicted a 2017 US intelligence report and the bipartisan findings of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation that Russia used hacking and other means in an operation designed to sway the 2016 election. Russia denies election interference.