Today’s lengthy Washington Post’s story makes it clear that former CIA boss John Brennan is largely responsible for driving the claim that Russia hacked the election.

But Brennan is a proven, documented liar. He was busted for lying to Congress and the American public by claiming that the CIA wasn’t spying on the Congressional investigation into torture … when it was.

Indeed, the Washington Post called on Brennan to be fired for lying.

And Brennan lied when – as Obama’s counter-terrorism advisor – he said that in the past year there had not been a single collateral death from drone strikes. (He later changed that slightly to say there was no “credible evidence” of such deaths.) But there was abundant and credible evidence of collateral deaths from drone strikes. As just one example among many, a March 2011 CIA drone attack in Pakistan killed some 50 people, including tribal elders who were gathered for a tribal conclave.)

Trevor Timm pointed out at the Guardian:

Indeed, Brennan’s CIA even created hacking techniques to frame other countries for hacking incidents.

Why is the media taking Brennan’s claims at face value? Especially when some of the other claims of Russian hacking have officially been debunked?

As Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Seymour Hersch said in January in a story questioning the whole Russian hacking story:

[If I had been covering the story,] I would have made [John] Brennan into a buffoon. A yapping buffoon in the last few days. Instead, everything is reported seriously.

Postscript: The other intelligence official behind many of the Russian hacking claims – James Clapper – is also a confirmed liar.

And see this and this.