Patel and Ratcliffe try to bolster claims that FBI and CIA conspired against Trump

President Trump’s appointees at the FBI and CIA are using their power to try to prop up the president’s claims that both agencies conspired against him.

The release of formerly classified FBI and CIA documents this week illustrates how President Donald Trump’s appointees at both agencies are trying to use the levers of government to prop up his long-standing assertions that intelligence agencies conspired against him.

The FBI released emails on Tuesday that purport to show an effort by the bureau’s leaders in 2020 to cover up a source’s claim that there was a Chinese plot to throw the presidential election to Joe Biden. In a statement to the Daily Mail, Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, said the emails reveal that bureau leaders “chose to play politics and withhold key information from the American people.”

And CIA Director John Ratcliffe released an internal agency analysis related to the 2020 election that he argued showed that Democratic appointees “manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump.”

Patel’s and Ratcliffe’s claims went beyond the information contained in the released documents. The documents do not describe definitive evidence that any official acted out of political motive or engaged in anything beyond the good-faith debate that is typical of the intelligence verification and analysis process.

The emails do show that at least one FBI official raised the concern that the report conflicted with congressional testimony at the time by Director Christopher Wray, who said the FBI was not aware of any Chinese attempt to interfere in the presidential election. A former FBI official told NBC News that Wray does not recall being made aware of the report.