I read it more that they were worried the Russians would destroy Clinton’s plan more than a national security issue.
Yes you’re probably right and yet it is still so bizarre. It was already public that Clinton was smearing Trump with this hoax so the only way Putin could interfere was by manipulating behind the scenes - he couldn’t come out publicly either way, no matter what his involvement may have been if at all.
The interesting part is that the Russians may indeed have been “manipulating Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s plans to smear Donald Trump” by influencing the information given to Steele and Steele’s primary sub-source... who himself was a known suspected Russian agent according to the FBI. But yeah, I think you got it right... US Intel chiefs were worried that Clinton’s plan might be foiled by Russia and they briefed the WH. The pee tape stuff was a clear give-away that it was all a joke, slander. Couple this with Brennan’s note to the WH that was forwarded to the FBI and you pretty much have the smoking gun. FBI was corruptly trying to influence the election and then disrupt the Presidency. We knew it, but now we can pretty much prove it. The documents don’t lie, but these people do and all they can say is “I don’t recall that”.