The current controversy about the CIA’s assessment that Putin and the Russians affected the outcome of the US election is not only another example of manufactured intelligence by elements of Hillary’s Praetorian Guard but is also a personal vendetta against a former business partner.  Even the FBI has balked at committing to such a conclusion.  Yet, two months before the election, Fox News reminds us that Hillary was very engaged with Putin in order to share common ground in world affairs.

“I would love it if we could continue to build a more positive relationship with Russia,” Clinton said during a speech to Goldman Sachs on June 4, 2013. In the same speech, Clinton said “obviously we would very much like to have a positive relationship with Russia and we would like to see Putin be less defensive toward a relationship with the United States so that we could work together on some issues.”

Everyone remembers her famous “reset” button when she took over as SecState but the outreach to Putin didn’t stop there.  During a speech to the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago on Oct. 28, 2013 she said,

“One time, I was visiting with him in his dacha outside of Moscow, and he was going on and on, you know, just listing all of the problems that he thinks are caused by the United States,” Clinton said. “... I said, ‘You know, Mr. Prime Minister, we actually have some things in common. We both want to protect wildlife, and I know how committed you are to protecting the tiger.’ I mean, all of a sudden, he sat up straight and his eyes got big and he goes, ‘You care about the tiger?’”

Clinton said Putin then took her into his “private inner sanctum” and began showing her a huge map of Russia, pointing out “the habitat of the tigers and the habitat of the seals and the whales.”

If this is true, and with Clinton there is always some doubt, I have to ask did Putin pull a PC variant of the old college line, “Do want to come upstairs and see my etchings?”

In reality, Clinton and her own inner circle were always pushing for closer ties.  After all, that’s what business partners do especially when it comes to the uranium trade.  But this all changed after the election loss.  Much like a fired business partner, Hillary and her spies in the beltway have concocted a story to deflect from their own arrogance and carelessness.  Hillary and the left are on the outside looking in, and in addition to fuming over Trump’s pre-inauguration successes, they must be worried over what other details Putin, courtesy of Edward Snowden, has in his possession.  And no amount of CIA storytelling will change that.

John Smith is the pen name of a former U.S. intelligence officer.