Summary
- Tulsi Gabbard released documents alleging Obama officials manipulated 2016 election intelligence.
- She claims a "treasonous conspiracy" aimed to harm President Trump.
- Gabbard threatened criminal referrals against former Obama administration officials.
- Multiple investigations found no evidence of vote manipulation by Russia.
- Democrats denounce Gabbard's report as politically motivated and baseless.
According to Gabbard's materials, intelligence officers were under pressure from the Obama administration to change their conclusions. According to the records, President Barack Obama asked for a fresh evaluation of Russian actions during the 2016 election, as evidenced by an email sent by an aide to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
In response to the accusations, Gabbard has vowed to submit criminal referrals to senior Obama administration officials through the Justice Department.
Several analyses, including a Senate assessment led by Republicans, have backed up the initial conclusions that Russia sought to sway the election by undermining Hillary Clinton's campaign and aiding Trump in spite of these allegations.
There was no proof of vote manipulation, according to earlier findings by Senate investigators and intelligence services, even though Russia carried out measures to sway public opinion.
Democrats have criticized the report as politically driven and erroneous, according to The New York Times. The leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, referred to Gabbard's charges as "baseless." Virginia Senator Mark Warner stressed that the latest assessment mixes up Russian influence campaigns and hacking attempts, which were two different things.
What evidence supports Gabbard’s claim of a treasonous Obama conspiracy in 2016?
Senior Obama-era officials, including former DNI James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, and FBI Director James Comey, manipulated and withheld key intelligence concerning Russian interference in the 2016 election to create a misleading narrative that Russia had actively targeted the election via cyberattacks.
A December 2016 National Security Council meeting led to an order—via an email from Clapper’s executive assistant—to intelligence community leaders to produce a new assessment "per the President’s request" detailing alleged Russian tools and actions to influence the election. Gabbard contends this assessment was politically motivated and contradicted earlier intelligence conclusions.
The intelligence community report released on January 6, 2017, which assessed Russian interference, allegedly relied partly on sources considered "not credible" and conflicted with prior intelligence indicating that Russia was
“probably not trying... to influence the election by using cyber means."