WASHINGTON — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released previously unseen reports that she claims proves the Obama administration “manufactured” conclusions that the Russian government interfered with the 2016 election.
Gabbard, under the direction of President Donald Trump, declassified a House Intelligence Committee report conducted in 2020 that the top intelligence official said undermined investigations by former President Barack Obama into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The report comes days after Gabbard issued a similar report on Friday accusing the Obama administration of pressuring intelligence officials to conclude the Russian government favored Trump’s victory.
“I have declassified a (House Intelligence Committee) oversight majority staff report that exposes how the Obama Administration manufactured the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that they knew was false, promoting the LIE that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government helped President Trump win the 2016 election,” Gabbard said in a statement. “In doing so, they conspired to subvert the will of the American people, working with their partners in the media to promote the lie, in order to undermine the legitimacy of President Trump, essentially enacting a years-long coup against him.”
Although the House report concluded that most of the findings made by the intelligence community were accurate, lawmakers argued the assessment was rushed and the conclusion that Putin favored Trump did not adhere to the “professional criteria” the other findings did.
That conclusion, the report found, was based on a single source who was deemed to be biased against the Russian government and the accusations lacked context.
However, Gabbard claimed Obama administration officials lied when they said the Steele Dossier — the Trump-Russia political opposition research report — was not used to influence the Obama administration’s initial 2016 intelligence review. Instead, she said the House investigation found former CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and DNI James Clapper overruled senior intelligence officials who warned the dossier “was fabricated and should not be used.”
In fact, the report says Obama administration officials led a classified briefing for members in December 2016 that “made no mention of Putin ‘aspiring’ to elect Trump.”
However, the report says Obama ordered a “rewrite” of that assessment to include “the judgment that President Putin ‘aspired’ for Trump to win.”
The report comes after years of criticism by Republican lawmakers that Democrats crafted a “Russia hoax” theory to undermine Trump’s first presidential victory. Since Trump returned to office for his second term, Gabbard and the CIA have made it a priority to uncover new information about those assessments.
In her latest statements, Gabbard claimed not only were the 2016 intelligence reports inaccurate but also a coordinated conspiracy against Trump.
The reports “confirm what many Americans have known: The Russia Hoax was a lie that was knowingly created by the Obama Administration to undermine the legitimacy and power of the duly elected President of the United States, Donald Trump,” Gabbard said.