Trump, Gabbard Take Aim at War Party: Declassify Documents that Show 'Treasonous Conspiracy' to Create Fake Russiagate Narrative
July 23—On July 18, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released over 100 pages of previously classified docs which provide evidence of what she calls “a treasonous conspiracy to subvert the will of the American people.” In releasing this report, Gabbard denounced the promotion of the Russiagate story by intelligence officials and President Barack Obama as “narrative building,” and not “intelligence gathering.”
Gabbard's action comes as it has been reported that FBI and Justice Department have begun, at the request and upon information provided by CIA Director John Radcliffe, criminal probes in former Obama FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan for their roles in promoting fake evidence to launch the probe of Donald Trump's campaign for alleged collusion with the Russians to affect the outcome the 2016 election. It also comes as President Trump, responding to the released documents and a briefing by Gabbard, has strenuously called for all people involved in this conspiracy to subvert the will of the American people, who had overwhelmingly elected him against Hillary Clinton, to be held accountable under the law—which includes former President Obama, who had demanded that a false intelligence estimate be concocted that showed Russian meddling in the election.
A Summary of Gabbard Said
We present below, as documentation, the Fox New Digital article from July 18, which broke the story, and contains relevant supporting quotes, which back up Gabbard's statements. Here is a quick summary of the points Gabbard made in her July 18 release:
In her official DNI X feed, Gabbard posts a series of devastating info-graphics along with a timeline, showing that on August 31, September 9, and December 7, 2016, the Intelligence Community (IC) had determined that Russia had neither the capacity or the intention to hack the 2016 election infrastructure, and included this assessment in a December 8, 2016 President’s Daily Brief which was then withheld from President Obama on orders of then-DNI James Clapper’s office, as instructed in a memo that read: “Based on some new guidance, we are going to push back publication of the PDB (President’s Daily Briefing). It will not run tomorrow and is not likely to run until next week.”
The following day, December 9, a White House meeting was convened which included CIA Director Brennan, FBI Director Comey, DNI Clapper, then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Secretary of State John Kerry, Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland, and others where, according to Gabbard, “Obama directed the IC to create a new intelligence assessment that detailed Russian election meddling, even though it would contradict multiple intelligence assessments released over the previous several months.”
Clapper’s DNI office then scrambled to piece together a “new assessment” which was released on January 6, 2017 which opened the door to the lying Russiagate story which dominated Trump’s first term.
In a statement on the release of the declassified docs on the assessment of Russian interference, Gabbard said, “This intelligence was weaponized…. It was used as a justification for endless smears, for sanctions from Congress, and for covert investigations.” She added: “When key internal assessments found that Russia ‘did not impact recent U.S. election results,’ those findings were suppressed.”
“For months before the 2016 election, the Intelligence Community maintained that Russia lacked both the intent and capability to hack U.S. elections,” Gabbard noted. “But once President Trump won, everything changed.”
What Is Not Said
Left out of this assessment was the fact that there was foreign intervention into our election and governmental function, but not by Russia, but our special ally Great Britain, including it GCHQ (General Communications HQ) and MI6, its foreign intelligence service, whose directors and actors, fed the Russiagate narrative including the provision of the lying dossier which carries the name of its nefarious preparer, the former British Intelligence operative Christopher Steele, which the FBI and NSA had both assessed to be a compilation of internet slanders and lies against President Trump, but which was nonetheless, cited as the basis for probes.
Further, what is also left out is that a forensic assessment done by a team from Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), led by former NSA Technical Director William Binney, had conclusively concluded that there was no Russian or other hack of the DNC computers, whose leaked content revealed manipulations and possible frauds of the Clinton campaign. The Binney-led team concluded that the leak was probably from a thumb drive, or an inside job, not from any foreign intelligence hack, as was widely alleged. When Binney presented the material to the Trump White House, he was instructed to contact then CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who was thoroughly briefed but "deep sixed" this explosive, factual material which blew apart the center of Russiagate.
Obama, Caught Like the Rat He Is
Gabbard, appearing on Newsmax on July 22, said that more documents will be released the following day which refute former President Obama claim that he had no role in any alleged coup attempt against Trump.
The smoking gun, Gabbard argued, was a Dec. 9, 2016, meeting at the White House with several top National Security Council principals, the result of which created a new assessment "per the President's request" to detail "the tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election."
A spokesperson for Obama on Tuesday called the accusation "outrageous," adding that "nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes."
Gabbard said that statement will be refuted in the coming hours.
"We will be releasing further documents tomorrow that will refute that statement," Gabbard said. "And we will be pulling a whole host of statements that were made by the Obama administration, by Hillary Clinton, by senior Democrat officials, by their friends in the media that state over and over again after this January 2017 manufactured intelligence document was created that repeat the narrative" that Russia aided Trump in the 2016 election.
Examples include: "Obama's CIA director John Brennan says there is strong consensus among us to support the CIA claim Russian hackers aided Donald Trump's election; Hillary Clinton said, 'I would be president if not for the Russian hackers supporting Donald Trump,'" Gabbard said.
"There is a vast body of evidence and intelligence that debunks and refutes this statement you've just read and others coming from some of the Democrat leaders in Congress today," Gabbard added.
Since the July 18 announcement, Gabbard told host Rob Schmitt that whistleblowers "are now coming forward who say they have new information that is related to what occurred during this period of time."
And while Gabbard deferred to the Department of Justice on the "legal path forward," she made clear how "essential" it is to hold people accountable.
"So the legal path forward will be up to the Department of Justice to determine. However, I will say how essential it is as an American that we hold people accountable, no matter how powerful they are, no matter what position they have held," she said. "It is essential that for the future of our nation and our democratic republic, that accountability must occur."
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Obama Admin 'Manufactured' Intelligence to Create 2016 Russian Election Interference Narrative, Docs Show
July 23—The following article appeared on Fox New Digital July 18. We reprint it as an authoritative report on the documents that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released, with more releases coming. We have added subheads.
by Brooke Singman Fox News
Published July 18, 2025 1:02pm EDT
EXCLUSIVE: The Obama administration "manufactured and politicized intelligence" to create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, despite information from the intelligence community stating otherwise, Fox News Digital has learned.
On Friday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents revealing "overwhelming evidence" that demonstrates how, after President Donald Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the years-long Trump–Russia collusion probe.
Documents revealed that in the months leading up to the November 2016 election, the intelligence community consistently assessed that Russia was "probably not trying…to influence the election by using cyber means."
One instance was Dec. 7, 2016, weeks after the election. Then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s talking points stated: "Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the U.S. presidential election outcome."
Russia Had No Impact on Elections
Fox News Digital obtained a declassified copy of the Presidential Daily Brief, which was prepared by the Department of Homeland Security, with reporting from the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, State Department and open sources, for Obama, dated Dec. 8, 2016.
"We assess that Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure," the Presidential Daily Brief stated. "Russian Government-affiliated actors most likely compromised an Illinois voter registration database and unsuccessfully attempted the same in other states."
But the brief stated that it was "highly unlikely" the effort "would have resulted in altering any state’s official vote result."
"Criminal activity also failed to reach the scale and sophistication necessary to change election outcomes," it stated.
The brief noted that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence assessed that any Russian activities "probably were intended to cause psychological effects, such as undermining the credibility of the election process and candidates."
The brief stated that cyber criminals "tried to steal data and to interrupt election processes by targeting election infrastructure, but these actions did not achieve a notable disruptive effect."
Comey's FBI Disagrees, Lies
Fox News Digital obtained declassified, but redacted, communications from the FBI on the Presidential Daily Brief, stating that it "should not go forward until the FBI" had shared its "concerns."
Those communications revealed that the FBI drafted a "dissent" to the original Presidential Daily Brief.
The communications revealed that the brief was expected to be published Dec. 9, 2016, the following day, but later communications revealed that Office of the Director of National Intelligence, "based on some new guidance" decided to "push back publication" of the Presidential Daily Brief.
"It will not run tomorrow and is not likely to run until next week," wrote the deputy director of the Presidential Daily Brief at Office of the Director of National Intelligence, whose name is redacted.
The following day, Dec. 9, 2016, a meeting convened in the White House Situation Room, with the subject line starting: "Summary of Conclusions for PC Meeting on a Sensitive Topic (REDACTED.)"
The meeting included top officials in the National Security Council, Clapper, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice, then-Secretary of State John Kerry, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, among others, to discuss Russia.
The declassified meeting record, obtained by Fox News Digital, revealed that principals "agreed to recommend sanctioning of certain members of the Russian military intelligence and foreign intelligence chains of command responsible for cyber operations as a response to cyber activity that attempted to influence or interfere with U.S. elections, if such activity meets the requirements" from an executive order that demanded the blocking of property belonging to people engaged in cyber activities.
Denying the IC Findings
After the meeting, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Clapper’s executive assistant emailed intelligence community leaders tasking them to create a new intelligence community assessment "per the president’s request," that detailed the "tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election."
"ODNI will lead this effort with participation from CIA, FBI, NSA, and DHS," the record states.
Later, Obama officials "leaked false statements to media outlets" claiming that "Russia has attempted through cyber means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election."
By Jan. 6, 2017, a new Intelligence Community Assessment was released that, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, "directly contradicted the IC assessments that were made throughout the previous six months."
Intelligence officials told Fox News Digital that the ICA was "politicized" because it "suppressed intelligence from before and after the election showing Russia lacked intent and capability to hack the 2016 election."
Officials also said it deceived the American public "by claiming the IC made no assessment on the ‘impact’ of Russian activities," when the intelligence community "did, in fact, assess for impact."
"The unpublished December PDB stated clearly that Russia ‘did not impact’ the election through cyber hacks on the election," an official told Fox News Digital. The official also said that the ICA had assessed that "Russia was responsible for leaking data from the DNC and DCCC," but while "failing to mention that FBI and NSA previously expressed low confidence in this attribution."
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence officials told Fox News Digital July 18 that they have been investigating the matter for months.
Officials told Fox News Digital that the new assessment "was based on information that was known by those involved to be manufactured i.e. the Steele Dossier or deemed as not credible."
Politicized Intelligence
Officials said that the intelligence was "politicized" and then "used as the basis for countless smears seeking to delegitimize President Trump’s victory, the years-long Mueller investigation, two Congressional impeachments, high level officials being investigated, arrested, and thrown in jail, heightened US-Russia tensions, and more."
Gabbard told Fox News Digital that this "is not a partisan issue," but one that "concerns every American."
"The information we are releasing today clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government," Gabbard told Fox News Digital. "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."
Gabbard said the "egregious abuse of power and blatant rejection of our Constitution" by Obama-era officials "threatens the very foundation and integrity of our democratic republic."
"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," Gabbard said. "The American people’s faith and trust in our democratic republic, and therefore the future of our nation, depends on it."
Gabbard added: "As such, I am providing all documents to the Department of Justice to deliver the accountability that President Trump, his family, and the American people deserve."
Fox News Digital reached out to Obama, Clapper, Comey, Brennan, Rice, Lynch and McCabe for comment and did not receive a response.
Criminal Probe of Brennan, Comey
The declassification of records and release by Gabbard and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence comes after Fox News Digital exclusively reported that former CIA Director Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey are under criminal investigation for activities related to the original Trump–Russia probe.
The criminal referral for Brennan came from CIA Director John Ratcliffe, after he declassified records revealing that Brennan did, in fact, push for the discredited anti-Trump [Steele] dossier to be included in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, despite the CIA’s consensus that it was filled with "internet rumor."
That dossier ultimately served as the basis for the Trump–Russia probe inside the FBI and for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Ratcliffe sent the criminal referral for Brennan to FBI Director Kash Patel, who then opened criminal investigations into Brennan and Comey.
Reacting to the news of the investigation, Trump said he thinks "they’re very dishonest people."
"I think they're crooked as hell," Trump said. "And, maybe they have to pay a price for that."
Trump added: "I believe they are truly bad people and dishonest people. So, whatever happens, happens."
Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.