The Trump administration’s latest findings in the investigation into the 2016 Russia-gate scandal were published in a press release on Friday. Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, accused former President Barack Obama and leadership in his national security cabinet of “lay(ing) the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump.”
Gabbard said her department’s monthslong investigation found that in 2016, top U.S. leaders committed what she called a “treasonous conspiracy” by apparently manipulating the American people into believing Russia played a role in then-presidential candidate Donald Trump winning the White House against Hillary Clinton.
“Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup with the objective of trying to usurp the President from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people,” Gabbard said, per the press release. “Their egregious abuse of power and blatant rejection of our Constitution threatens the very foundation and integrity of our democratic republic. No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.”
Including Obama, other top officials being accused are Obama’s former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
The news comes just after former leaders of both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Brennan were put under investigation last week by the Department of Justice for potential wrongdoings in the Trump-Russia probe during the Obama administration, specifically with the “Steele dossier,” which contained unverified allegations about Trump.
Investigative journalist Matt Taibbi told Fox News that Gabbard’s investigation makes it apparent that the real target is the Obama White House “because of decisions that were made in early December 2016 to suppress the presidential daily briefing and go ahead and order a new intelligence community assessment that ultimately would have much more aggressive conclusions about Trump and Russia.”
According to the timeline provided in the Friday press release, Clapper stated, “Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the U.S. Presidential election outcome,” in December 2016. After that, Obama held a meeting a few days later with top aides, including Clapper. His assistant then ‘sent an email to IC leaders tasking them with creating a new IC assessment ‘per the President’s request’ that details the ‘tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election.’ Other top intelligence agencies also participated.
Gabbard posted an image of the timeline of the “Russia hoax” on her social media.
But not everyone believes Gabbard has incriminating evidence against the former president and his staff.
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., told CBS News that this “years-long coup” Gabbard is insinuating happened has no legal basis.
Gabbard’s press release was “not just a lie,” Himes said, “but a very dangerous lie.”
He cited the Senate report, which backed the claim that Russia attempted to influence the presidential election by sabotaging Hillary Clinton’s campaign and supporting Trump.
“It is well known and well established that the Russians hacked into the DNC and undertook any number of other influence operations, including buying reams of Facebook ads, to discredit Hillary Clinton. That is not in contention,” Himes added.
Since Gabbard’s office released the information, Trump has posted multiple times on social media in connection with the allegations, even sharing an AI-generated video of Obama being arrested by FBI agents.
Gabbard said in the release that all of her office’s findings would be handed over to the Department of Justice for further action.