Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard dropped a political bombshell on Friday, revealing newly declassified documents that she says prove a “treasonous conspiracy directed by President Obama.”
The details: Gabbard declassified hundreds of pages of emails and government documents from the weeks between President Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory and his inauguration, which show that Obama and top intelligence officials set up the Russia collusion scandal that plagued his first term. Here’s the timeline:
🗓️ December 8: In what would have been the Presidential Daily Brief, then-DNI Director James Clapper wrote: “We assess that Russia and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results.” The brief did highlight one instance in Illinois where Moscow tried, but failed to hack election systems.
- Gabbard says, “Before it could reach the President, it was abruptly pulled “based on new guidance.” This key intelligence assessment was never published.”
🗓️ December 9: Obama met with heads of the intelligence agencies, including FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, DNI Director Clapper, and others.
- E-mails show that following this meeting, they were directed to “produce an assessment per the President’s request” that highlights the tactics Russia tried to use in 2016.
🗓️ December 9: Obama officials began leaking to the media to advance the story they concocted in their meeting with the president.
- The Washington Post wrote: “The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency.”
🗓️ January 6: Two weeks before Trump took office, DNI Clapper finally published the Presidential Daily Brief that had been paused on December 8, but this time it concluded that: “Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.”
What happened next is history. The Mueller special counsel, impeachments, years of bulls*it, hanging over Trump’s first term.
Treason: Gabbard reacted to the finding, going as far as to tell Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that “this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama… after President Trump had already gotten elected.
It’s worth noting: As president-elect, this brief would have also gone to Donald Trump — reinforcing why Obama would not have wanted it to go out in its original form.
Trump reacts? Sort of. He hasn’t said anything directly, but he did re-post several memes on Truth Social, including one AI-generated video of Obama being arrested with YMCA music playing.
TLDR: U.S. intel agencies first found no Russian impact on the 2016 election. After an Obama-led meeting, the assessment was revised to say Moscow helped Trump—triggering three years of investigations that dogged his presidency.
What happens next? Gabbard said: “There must be indictments. Those responsible, no matter how powerful… they all must be held accountable” and referred it to the Department of Justice.