Overview

• Senate Republicans released the 24-page annex on July 31 revealing emails that allegedly showed Hillary Clinton approved a plan to tie Donald Trump to Russia in the 2016 campaign.
• CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies assessed the pivotal email as likely Russian disinformation and determined it was a composite drawn from hacked think-tank materials.
• Special Counsel John Durham noted in his declassified appendix that he did not rely on the disputed email in his 2023 report and flagged doubts about its authenticity.
• President Trump and GOP lawmakers have seized on the annex to demand prosecutions, prompting the Justice Department to review criminal referrals linked to the alleged scheme.
• Critics have renewed scrutiny of the FBI’s handling of conflicting intelligence, arguing the bureau failed to investigate early warnings about the purported collusion plot.