Topline
While President Donald Trump scrambles to fend off scrutiny about his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein and the demand for the full release of the Epstein files, one of his top appointees, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, released a report Friday focused on an alleged “treasonous conspiracy” carried out by the Obama administration during the 2016 election.
Gabbard published the declassified report Friday. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Key Facts
In a Friday afternoon press release accompanied by a thread on X, Gabbard claimed “Americans will finally learn the truth,” about the 2016 election, and alleged the Obama administration and FBI officials “manufactured and politicized intelligence” to create doubt around Trump’s election victory in 2016.
In a memo titled the “Russia Hoax,” Gabbard’s office outlines allegations against former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, which Gabbard says “clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government.”
Months after taking office in 2017, Trump fired Comey, who had overseen the FBI during the investigation into Russian interference.
The newly declassified report contains 114 pages of partially redacted emails, showing communications between Obama administration officials about potential Russian interference in the election.
Gabbard pointed to multiple intelligence community assessments in her statement that said Russia was “probably not” trying to influence the election in 2016 through cyber means, followed by press reports claiming the intelligence community had concluded Russia had tried to interfere in the election.
Gabbard’s memo alleges the Obama administration relied on the Steele Dossier in claiming that Russia interfered in the election.
Gabbard’s claims run counter to a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee investigation that found Russia interfered in the 2016 election and noted that although Trump’s contact with Russian officials presented a “grave” intelligence threat, it was not clear if the president’s allies knowingly worked with Russia to bolster Trump’s chances of victory.
A 2019 report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller also found Russia interfered in the election.
Gabbard called for the prosecution of Obama administration officials, saying “every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
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Contra
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said in a statement reported by Politico that Gabbard was seeking to “change the subject” with her allegations, adding, “Baseless accusations of treason are unfortunately par for the course for this Director of National Intelligence, but that doesn’t make them any less damaging and unacceptable.”
