A newly declassified intelligence report has come to light, claiming that Russia possessed information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s health, including her purported use of heavy tranquilizers. The report, released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, alleges that this intelligence was obtained from Democratic National Committee (DNC) data, which was considered ‘extraordinarily alarming’ by former President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders. The report also suggests that the intelligence community, led by former CIA Director John Brennan, may have mischaracterized or exaggerated this intelligence to support a narrative that Russia sought to influence the 2016 U.S. election in favor of Donald Trump.
The report, prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2020, states that Russian intelligence had obtained DNC data indicating that Clinton’s health condition was ‘extraordinarily alarming’ and could have had a ‘serious negative impact’ on her election prospects. Clinton was reportedly placed on a daily regimen of ‘heavy tranquilizers,’ and her medical issues, including Type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, were allegedly known to Russian intelligence. The report further claims that the U.S. intelligence community, under Brennan’s direction, published potentially biased or implausible intelligence suggesting that Putin preferred Trump, which the report deems ‘implausible if not ridiculous.’
Gabbard’s report criticizes the intelligence community for relying on dubious, substandard sources and selectively quoting reliable intelligence that contradicted the assessments, thereby creating a contrived false narrative. She also highlights that the CIA’s mischaracterization of intelligence led to a flawed narrative about Putin’s alleged support for Trump, which failed to consider other plausible explanations of Putin’s intentions. The report concludes that the intelligence community’s failure to act on warnings about the Clinton Plan contributed to the misleading narrative surrounding Russian election interference in 2016.
Meanwhile, the report states that Brennan ordered the post-election publication of 15 reports containing previously collected but unpublished intelligence, three of which were substandard – containing information that was unclear, of uncertain origin, potentially biased, or implausible – and those became foundational sources for the Intelligence Community Assessments (ICA) judgments that Putin preferred Trump over Clinton. The report also highlights that the CIA misrepresented these reports as reliable, without mentioning their significant underlying flaws.
One scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports constitutes the only classified information cited to suggest Putin ‘aspired’ to help Trump win, the report states. Moreover, the ICA failed to consider plausible alternative explanations of Putin’s intentions indicated by reliable intelligence and observed Russian actions.
The committee also found that two senior CIA officers reportedly warned Brennan that ‘we don’t have direct information that Putin wanted to get Trump elected.’ Despite these warnings, the Obama administration proceeded to publish the ICA. The report also includes intelligence from a longtime Putin confidant who explained to investigators that ‘Putin told him he did not care who won the election,’ and that Putin ‘had often outlined the weaknesses of both major candidates.’
Additionally, the report states that the ICA committed context showing that the claim that Putin preferred Trump was ‘implausible – if not ridiculous.’ The committee also found that the ICA suppressed intelligence that showed that Russia was actually planning for a Clinton victory because ‘they knew where (she) stood’ and believed Russia ‘could work with her.’
The declassification of the report comes just days after Gabbard declassified and released documents that included ‘overwhelming evidence’ that demonstrated how, after Trump won the 2016 election against Clinton, then-President Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe.
Meanwhile, Fox News Digital, in 2020, exclusively obtained the declassified transcripts from Obama-era national security officials’ closed-door testimonies before the House Intelligence Committee, in which those officials testified that they had no ’empirical evidence’ of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election, but continued to publicly push the ‘narrative’ of collusion.
The House Intelligence Committee, in 2017, conducted depositions of top Obama intelligence officials, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, among others. The transcripts, from 2017 and 2018, revealed top Obama officials were questioned by House Intelligence Committee lawmakers and investigators about whether they had or had seen evidence of such collusion, coordination or conspiracy – the issue that drove the FBI’s initial case and later the special counsel probe.
Clapper testified in 2017 that he never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election. ‘That’s not to say that there weren’t concerns about the evidence we were seeing, anecdotal evidence…. But I do not recall any instance where I had direct evidence,’ Clapper stated.