The director of national intelligence released a bombshell report Friday suggesting a “treasonous conspiracy” by former president Barack Obama and his national security team. The report also showcases how the intelligence community uses mainstream media outlets in subversive operations aimed at Americans.
Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard released a 114-page file of recently declassified information detailing how Obama ordered the creation of false intelligence to support the claim that the Russians interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of President Donald Trump. Before Obama ordered the false assessment, American intelligence agencies had already concluded that “Russia is probably not trying to influence the election.”
Gabbard said Obama’s goal was to undermine Trump’s presidency. On Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, she called it treason:
The implications of this are, frankly, nothing short of historic. Over 100 documents that we released on Friday really detail and provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama just weeks before he was due to leave office.
She added:
What we saw occur here … was that we had a sitting president of the United States and his Cabinet and leadership team, quite frankly, who were not happy with the fact that President Trump had won the election.… And so they decided that they would do everything possible to try to undermine his ability to do what voters tasked President Trump to do.
“No Evidence”
Gabbard included an accompanying 11-page summary memo of the report with a concise play-by-play of how the Russia Collusion conspiracy came to be.
On August 31, 2016, about a month before Trump won the election, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper received a report from a Department of Homeland Security official saying there was no sign of a Russian threat to manipulate the vote.
On September 2, 2016, the FBI reinforced that conclusion in a pre-election, multi-agency assessment, saying there was no “definitive” information indicating Russia intended to interfere in the U.S. elections.
Seven days later, on September 9, an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said that an upcoming presidential daily brief should make clear that Russia “probably is not trying…to influence the election by using cyber means.” A number of intel officials agreed.
On September 12, intel published an assessment with the conclusion that “foreign adversaries do not have and will probably not obtain the capabilities to successfully execute widespread and undetected cyber attacks on election infrastructure.” Two days later, a presidential brief with similar conclusions was published.
On November 6, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.
A month later, intel was working on a presidential brief concluding that “foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the US Presidential election outcome.” They stated, “we have no evidence of cyber manipulation of election infrastructure intended to alter results.”
On December 8, intel officials discussed that brief, which they planned on publishing the next day.
Tables Turned
But then something changed. According to the memo:
A few hours later, after initially coauthoring the [presidential daily brief], the FBI (led by FBI Director James Comey) inexplicably withdraws from coordinating on the product and notifies other [intelligence] officials that the FBI will be drafting a dissent.
Later that same afternoon, a senior official who worked on the presidential briefs erased the conclusions that Russia did not manipulate the 2016 election outcome “based on some new guidance.”
There was a lot of activity the next day, December 9. This appears to be when the conspiracy was cooked up. According to the report, Obama brought together his top Cabinet officials for a National Security Council Principals Committee meeting. Among those who attended were James Clapper, John Brennan, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Brian McKeon, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe, and Avril Haines. The files indicate that Obama ordered the creation of a new intelligence assessment implicating Russia in election meddling, “even though it would contradict multiple intelligence assessments released over the previous several months.”
After the meeting, then-DNI Clapper’s assistant sent out an email to DNI officials asking them to put together an “assessment per the President’s request.” In addition to the ODNI, other intel agencies who joined in the conspiracy included the CIA, FBI, NSA, and DHS.
Involving the Media
While the conspiracy soup was being cooked up behind the scenes, the Deep Staters began leaking fabricated intel to the media. They leaked to The Washington Post that “Russia used ‘cyber means’ to influence ‘the outcome of the election.’”
Later that evening, they leaked again to WaPo, this time the talking point that the CIA “’concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened’ in the election to help President Trump.” But, Gabbard’s memo says, “at this point, there is no official [Intelligence Community] assessment that contains that conclusion.”
Five days later, the media received a leak claiming that “[intel] officials believe ‘with a high level of confidence’ that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in the ‘U.S. Election Hack.’”
By late December, a DNI whistleblower who began questioning the new assessments was sidelined and told by a superior that the new narrative was based on information he wasn’t allowed to see.
The Steele Dossier
On January 6, about two weeks before Trump’s inauguration, the Obama administration told the public that new information revealed that “Putin directed an effort to help President Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.” This new information was based on the Steele Dossier. The Steele Dossier was named after Democratic opposition researcher Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer. The dossier was essentially a fake document funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign through the DNC’s official law firm, Perkins Coie, which in turn hired Fusion GPS to conduct the “research.” Fusion GPS then hired Steele.
Three years later, in September 2019, the whistleblower was surprised to find out that Obama’s assessment was based on the Steele Dossier. “This revelation shocks the ODNI Whistleblower, who had been told that DNI Clapper viewed the Steele Dossier as ‘untrustworthy,’” according to the memo.
As many remember, Trump was plagued by allegations of colluding with Russia during his first term. The false allegations prompted the investigation by special counsel and former FBI Director Robert Mueller. That investigation cleared the president.
Gabbard said that all documents proving this conspiracy are being turned over to the Justice Department. All those involved will “be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law.”
Circling the Wagons
Democrats have begun circling the wagons. Connecticut Representative Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called Gabbard’s accusation of treason “baseless.” Virginia Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The New York Times that the report
compared two different things: Russian attempts to hack into voting systems and Russian influence operations meant to sway public opinion.
“This is one more example of the director of national intelligence trying to cook the books,” Mr. Warner said. “We’re talking about apples and oranges. The Russians were not successful at manipulating our election infrastructure, nor did we say they were.”
Some would take issue with Warner’s claim. On June 8, 2017, Comey publicly said:
There should be no fuzz on this whatsoever. The Russians interfered in our election during the 2016 cycle. They did it with purpose, they did it with sophistication, they did it with overwhelming technical efforts.
Trump, who needs a diversion from his administration’s major flop with the Epstein files, seems sympathetic to the idea of prosecuting Obama. He posted an edited video on his Truth Social account on Sunday showing Obama getting arrested in the Oval Office.
Brennan and Comey are already under investigation. The Justice Department made the announcement earlier this month.
Obama has not responded publicly since Gabbard released the report Friday.
Pundits have wisely advised people not to hold their breath waiting for justice. Washington has a bad record of policing its own.
