Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified a series of documents that suggest Obama administration officials fabricated intelligence to advance the narrative of Trump-Russia collusion. The documents reveal that the intelligence community initially assessed that Russia was ‘probably not trying to influence the election by using cyber means,’ contradicting later political actions that led to the creation of a politicized Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) in 2017.
The declassified materials, obtained by Fox News Digital, include a Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) from December 8, 2016, which stated: ‘We assess that Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent U.S. election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure.’ The brief also noted that efforts to disrupt the election were ‘unlikely to result in altering any state’s official vote result,’ highlighting the lack of significant cyber interference.
However, the ICA of 2017, which was directly linked to the Obama administration’s directive, contradicted earlier assessments. This report, produced by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, found that the ICA was heavily influenced by political pressure and included unreliable sources. The committee highlighted that the ICA failed to consider alternative explanations for Putin’s actions and misrepresented the intelligence available.
Key figures like former CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey were implicated in these events. The report also noted that the ICA excluded substantial intelligence that suggested Putin might have preferred Clinton, despite his public rhetoric. The declassified documents further reveal that the ICA was rushed, with limited coordination and oversight, leading to the publication of potentially biased information before the inauguration of Trump.
The House Intelligence Committee’s findings underscore the politicization of intelligence assessments, where the need to support a political narrative overshadowed the integrity of the intelligence process. The report also includes testimonies from a longtime Putin confidant, who stated that Putin had no particular preference for either candidate and was more interested in observing their weaknesses. These revelations challenge the foundational premise of the Russia narrative that underpinned much of the subsequent political and legal scrutiny of Trump.
The implications of these findings are significant, as they suggest that the intelligence community’s role in shaping public perception and political discourse may have been compromised by internal political pressures. The declassified documents and the subsequent findings by the House Intelligence Committee have sparked broader discussions about the accountability and transparency of intelligence operations, particularly in the context of national security and electoral integrity.