Intel chief Tulsi Gabbard released a trove of explosive documents from the last weeks of the Obama administration – saying it unmasks a ‘treasonous conspiracy’ against Donald Trump.
Gabbard released a 114-page document on Friday she says shows the Obama administration was aware that there was no threat of Russia ‘directly’ manipulating the vote in 2016.
She’s now calling for an investigation into and potential criminal prosecution of anyone who took part – which may include ex-President Barack Obama and James Comey, the former FBI director.
The documents revealed insider discussions among top Obama officials about Russia‘s much-debated role in the 2016 U.S. elections.
Although many of the documents are highly redacted or completely blacked out, they show conversations among favorite Trump targets including former intel chief James Clapper as officials debated how to describe Russian election activity.
The documents found that there was ‘no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count through cyber means.’
But Gabbard says the documents show that Democrats chose to ignore that – or even promote the opposite narrative – to try and take down Trump.
That would make it another facet of what Trump and Gabbard have described as the ‘Russia hoax’ – Democrats and perceived enemies working to frame then-candidate Trump unfairly for now-debunked theories he was working with Russia to interfere in the election.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard alleges a ”treasonous conspiracy’ by top Obama administration officials to try to ‘usurp’ Donald Trump’s authority
The Obama team ‘politicized intelligence’ as part of what Gabbard calls a ‘years-long coup against President Trump.’
In addition to railing against ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ as one of many ‘witch hunts’ against him orchestrated by the Democrats, Trump for years has fumed about the discredited ‘Steele dossier,’ which became part of a counterintelligence investigation during the campaign.
Gabbard said in a blistering statement accompanying the document release: ‘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.’
‘Their egregious abuse of power and blatant rejection of our Constitution threatens the very foundation and integrity of our democratic republic,’ Gabbard said.
‘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,’ she said.
Several of the documents put out by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) show officials found that Russia either wouldn’t try or wouldn’t be able to shift the outcome of a U.S. vote.
‘Russia probably is not trying to going to be able to? [influence] the election by using cyber means to manipulate computer-enabled election infrastructure,’ reads one draft line by the then-deputy director of ODNI.
By December 9, following Trump’s stunning win over Democrat Hillary Clinton, a document to top intelligence officials tasked them with creating an assessment ‘per the President’s request’ about ‘tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election.’
Gabbard is calling for an investigation into and potential criminal prosecution of anyone who took part – which may include ex-President Barack Obama
Trump continues to rail against the Russia probe on a regular basis, saying it undermined him during his first term
Many of the pages the DNI released are heavily redacted
Documents show officials crafting a document saying there wasn’t an indication Russia could manipulate the vote count
The administration unsealed the documents amid the fury over the Jeffrey Epstein files
‘We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election,’ according to a January 2017 report titled ‘Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections.’
The report then mentioned Russian cyber operations against both political parties.
Of the material Gabbard released, one new August 31, 2016 document by an official with their name blacked out states that the ‘thrust of the analysis is that there is no indication o fa Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count through cyber means.’
That came more than four years before Trump and prominent allies would make claims that voting machine companies and an altered vote were responsible for his defeat in battleground states in the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden.
A September 2, 2016 document features an official asking for a line on Russia’s intent to be ‘softened.’
‘The way it currently reads, it would indicate that we have definitive information that Russia does intend to disrupt our elections and we are uncomfortable making that assessment at this point. We would suggest editing the sentence to read as the following … “We judge Russia to be the only nation state with the current means and possible motivation to use cyber attack to disrupt the 2016 election or deny political legitimacy to US presidential candidates.’
A Sept. 16, 2016 document states that ‘foreign adversaries do not have and will probably not obtain the capabilities to successfully execute widespread and undetected cyber attacks.’
A copy of the color-printed 2016 intelligence assessment features a map of ‘Moscow’s efforts to manipulate foreign elections’ over a period of 16 years. If features such countries as Ukraine, which it would invade in 2022 after annexing Crimea in 2014, and Belarus, which has been a key Russian ally in the Ukraine war.
Gabbard’s release says states that Obama administration officials ‘leaked false statements to media outlets, including The Washington Post, claiming, “Russia has attempted through cyber means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election.’
Obama’s post-presidential office had no comment.
‘We are turning over all documents to the DOJ for criminal referral,’ wrote Gabbard, a former House Democrat from Hawaii who previously ran for president, left the Democratic Party, and endorsed Trump.
It also states that a January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment ‘directly contradicted’ intelligence community assessments from the previous six months.
A chart lists ‘possible state-level election network breaches’ in the U.S., like one from 2015, when a ‘Russian-speaking cybercriminal offered to sell a database containing the personal information of approximately 190 million US persons from 49 states.’
A copy of a December draft presidential daily brief assesses that ‘foreign adversaries will likely weigh the risk of appearing to influence US elections if caught or implicated relative to any perceived benefit.’
It also assesses that new voting technologies ‘will increase vulnerabilities and decrease diversity in computer-enabled US election system in the future.’
Gabbard’s release is the latest move in Trump’s second term to turn the tables on top Democratic officials he views as undermining him during his first term.
Trump continues to fume about former FBI Director James Comey, who is already under investigation by the Justice Department for potential wrongdoing during the Russia probe.
On Thursday, the DOJ fired Maurene Comey, the assistant U.S. attorney in New York who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.’
