Newly released intelligence regarding the “Clinton Plan” has revealed intercepted communications from an associate of George Soros, indicating that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign against Donald Trump aimed to orchestrate a “long-term affair to demonize” him by associating him with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Additionally, the Clinton team anticipated that “the FBI will add fuel to the fire” by aiding campaign officials in legitimizing the unfounded claim that Trump was colluding with Russia to sabotage the election.
These revelations—stemming from intercepted communications allegedly involving Leonard Benardo, a senior official at George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, and Clinton foreign policy adviser Julianne Smith—illustrate new details about the intelligence received by the U.S. intelligence community in July 2016, just prior to the initiation of the FBI’s politically controversial Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
The serious accusations suggest a coordinated effort to falsely connect Donald Trump with Vladimir Putin, potentially serving to divert attention from Hillary Clinton’s classified email controversy. This is detailed in a previously classified, now largely unredacted appendix to Special Counsel John Durham’s 2023 report surrounding the origins of the Russiagate investigation.
The intelligence, reportedly shared with the FBI and other agencies, included emails attributed to Benardo, outlining a supposed scheme involving Smith and others, allegedly sanctioned by Clinton. These emails are believed to have been initially acquired through Russian cyber operations.
In one email dated July 25, 2016, Benardo allegedly stated, “The media analysis on the DNC hacking appears solid… Politicization is on the table… Julie 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.”
Durham noted in the annex report that “Julie” likely referred to Julianne Smith.
In an email the following day—July 27, 2016—Benardo allegedly wrote: “HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] approved Julia’s idea about Trump and Russian hackers undermining U.S. elections. That should shift attention away from her own missing emails, especially if the affair escalates. It’s key to make the Russian involvement a U.S. domestic issue.”
“The idea is to frame it as a critical infrastructure threat for the election to create a sense of urgency since both POTUS [Obama] and VPOTUS [Biden] have acknowledged that the intelligence community would expedite the search for evidence that is unfortunately still lacking…” the purported email from Benardo continued. “In the absence of direct evidence, Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect will provide the media, and GRU [Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate] will hopefully continue to supply additional information.”
