Summary

In Chapter 8, Woodward discusses Obama's decision to produce an intelligence report on the Russian interference in the election. CIA director John Brennan had already received intelligence from an M16 officer named Christopher Steele about Russia's attempt to steer the election away from Hillary Clinton to Trump. The FBI was already looking into possible collusion between Trump and Russia. The FBI and CIA, each of which had experienced embarrassments and flawed intelligence in recent years, merged their intelligence. One part of the intelligence dossier detailed an incident in which Trump ordered prostitutes to urinate on the bed in the Moscow Ritz Carlton where Obama and his wife had stayed. Trump's reaction to the news about the report was denial. Hope Hicks, his public relations specialist, believed the press had what she called "oppositional defiance syndrome" and that the press was vindictive. In January of...