In the annals of American political blunders, the Russia hoax — the witch hunt masquerading as an investigation into imaginary Kremlin puppets in the 2016 election — stands as a symbol of self-inflicted damage.
New evidence from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s explosive recent data dump — over 230,000 pages of declassified documents revealing an alleged Obama-era conspiracy to undermine President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory by fabricating intelligence about Russia collusion — exposes this betrayal.
Fueled by a partisan media echo chamber, weaponized by intelligence agencies drunk on unchecked power, and amplified by Democratic operatives, this hoax didn’t just tarnish a presidency. It destroyed U.S.-Russia relations, pushing Moscow into Beijing’s tight grip, and stripped away the strong oversight of our intelligence community.
The true victims? Not President Trump or allies like Gen. Michael Flynn, but the strategic partnership we lost with Russia and the careful oversight of our CIA, FBI, and the broader intelligence community.
Let’s start with the geopolitical wreckage. After the Cold War, the United States had a rare opportunity to bring a humbled Russia into the Western fold, transforming a former enemy into a bulwark against China’s growing threat.
Instead, hubris and hysteria prevailed. NATO’s continuous eastward expansion — adding Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic in 1999, then the Baltics in 2004 — wasn’t merely “defensive”; it was a calculated move to encircle Russia, which felt like betrayal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in early overtures to President Bill Clinton, suggested NATO membership for Russia, citing fears of China and seeking alliances. Washington’s rejection, emphasizing unipolar dominance over practical diplomacy, planted seeds of mistrust.
The Russia hoax sparked this explosive situation. The 2016 election investigations, based on the discredited Steele dossier and FBI overreach — later discredited by the Durham report and Gabbard’s 2025 declassification revealing Obama officials’ alleged manipulation of intelligence to portray Trump as a Russian asset — focused on Russia as the main villain.
Media hysteria and Democratic grandstanding led to severe sanctions in 2017, targeting Russia’s energy and defense sectors.
By 2017, the Russia hoax had fueled crippling sanctions targeting Russia’s energy and defense sectors, as Western markets shut Moscow out. Trade with China surged to $108 billion in 2018, driven by deals such as the 2014 30-year gas agreement, which gained momentum following the lifting of sanctions.
By 2022, as Ukraine sanctions intensified — SWIFT bans and asset freezes — trade reached $190 billion, soaring to $240 billion in 2023. China became Russia’s main partner, purchasing 97 million metric tons of discounted oil from 2017 to 2023 and supplying machinery and dual-use technology, such as semiconductors, to circumvent Western restrictions.
This wasn’t just economics; it was strategic self-destruction driven by U.S. vilification.
Russia and China, once cautious rivals — leaked FSB memos identified Beijing as a potential Siberian threat — formed a “no-limits” pact in February 2022, just before Ukraine’s invasion. Joint military exercises increased, with Vostok 2018 involving 3,000 Chinese troops, and arms sales flourished: S-400s and Su-35s to Beijing.
Diplomatically, they blocked U.S. initiatives in BRICS and SCO, vetoing resolutions on Syria and North Korea while echoing each other’s propaganda –Russia supporting Taiwan claims, China blaming NATO for Ukraine.
A 2025 Chinese defector’s revelations about Beijing’s plans to exploit Russian weakness highlight the irony: U.S. pressure created this Eurasian alliance, boosting China’s influence and pulling Russia into China’s sphere.
Imagine an alternative — a “reverse Nixon,” where constructive engagement pulled Russia westward. Limit NATO’s expansion, integrate Moscow economically through G8 energy deals, and dial back the sanctions rooted in misinformation. Russia could have hedged against China, working together on Arctic security or counterterrorism, stabilizing a bipolar world under U.S. influence.
But no, analysts rightly call this a “strategic illusion” now, due to deep distrust and Russia’s vilification through the Russia hoax labeling them a boogeyman that placed President Trump in the White House.
The hoax didn’t just alienate Russia; it gifted China a compliant ally, dooming us to a multipolar nightmare of our own making.
Now, let’s turn to the domestic issue: the undermining of intelligence community oversight by the hoax. Before 2016, the U.S. had some safeguards — Democrats and the media acted as strong watchdogs against spy-state abuses. Edward Snowden’s 2013 leaks exposed the National Security Agency’s abuses, with The Washington Post leading the investigation, and Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon supporting efforts to curb the NSA’s bulk signals intelligence collection.
The legacy of the Church Committee from the 1970s led to the creation of bipartisan committees, such as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, with Democrats like Idaho Sen. Frank Church serving as oversight champions.
Historically, Democrats have generally taken the lead in holding the intelligence community accountable for abuses of power, while Republicans often turned a blind eye, acting as apologists for IC overreach.
In the 2010s, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California led efforts to hold the CIA accountable for abuses involving rendition and torture, while Republicans sought to cover it up, playing the role of obstructionists-in-chief.
Then came the Russia hoax, turning the script into an Orwellian farce. Democrats, once champions of privacy, skeptical of intelligence community power, and the guardians offering robust oversight, became cheerleaders for the intelligence communities, defending the very agencies they once criticized.
Senators Adam Schiff of California (then a member of the House of Representatives) and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner repeated the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment as gospel, ignoring its hurried timeline and later critiques in a 2025 CIA review. The Steele dossier’s fairy tales were accepted without question, justifying FISA abuses on Carter Page, which were later condemned by the DOJ Inspector General.
Media outlets, once skeptical of the intelligence community, turned into stenographers: CNN and the New York Times published over 1,000 stories about Russia and Trump, relying on anonymous intelligence community leaks without any doubt.
The Washington Post, Snowden’s former hero, defended FISA warrants, despite obvious errors. The guardians of intelligence community oversight — Democratic critics and the cynical media — collaborated to support intelligence community abuses of power.
Democrats and the media, once defenders of oversight, conspired to promote intelligence community abuses, creating a feedback loop where leaks fueled headlines and accountability vanished.
Republicans, always the national security lapdogs, offered no counterbalance, focusing on Trump’s defense rather than any intelligence oversight. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s “bipartisan” reports validated interference claims, but overlooked intelligence community blunders, like the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane fiasco.
The Republicans gave the intelligence community a pass, offering no scrutiny on their abuses of power. Oversight eroded: No reforms after Durham’s exposé of FBI bias, no pushback on leaks shaping narratives.
The hoax transformed watchdogs into guard dogs, emboldening the intelligence community to abuse its power — politicize assessments and conduct surveillance with impunity, risking future abuses that make Snowden seem quaint.
These twin victims — shattered U.S.-Russia ties and gutted intelligence community oversight — are no coincidence; the hoax wove them into a vicious cycle.
By hyping Russia as an existential threat via fabricated intel — Gabbard’s dump details how the intelligence community lacked direct evidence, yet pushed the collusion myth — it justified unchecked intelligence community overreach and silenced critics at home, while sustaining the China-Russia axis to retroactively validate the narrative.
This loop, rooted in politicized leaks and Democratic complicity, eroded bipartisan oversight, leaving Congress impotent and America vulnerable to both foreign realignments and domestic tyranny.
Enough. Restore sanity now: Use Gabbard’s evidence to hold Church-style hearings, examining intelligence community abuses openly. Declassify all relevant logs and prosecute perpetrators.
Democrats must embrace their role as intelligence community watchdogs, demanding FISA reforms, accountability for leaks, and curbing CIA and FBI abuses of power that threaten our Constitutional Republic.
The creators of this hoax — media hacks, Democratic partisans, and rogue intelligence community officials — must face justice; otherwise, the United States of America will pay the ultimate price in a world where enemies unite and our guardians become unchecked tyrants.
Diplomatically, pursue practical engagement with Russia to bring them back into the Western fold of nation-states, thus countering the threat from China.
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