When you read as much news as I do, it’s often very tempting to rely solely on other people’s summaries and analyses of the information that’s out there. If I trust the source, why shouldn’t I let that source do the heavy lifting? Occasionally, though, you need to go to the original material to get the full impact.

I decided that, when it came to the material that Tulsi Gabbard released about the origins of the Russia collusion hoax that dragged down Trump’s first term, I needed to see things for myself. I’m glad I did, because it wasn’t until I read the documents in situ, so to speak, that I realized that the Obama administration actually took its marching orders from Russia. This doesn’t mean that Putin called Obama and said, “Do this.” It does mean, though, that Obama and his team, to destroy Trump’s presidency, effectuated Putin’s election interference goals.

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You can see the declassified documents for yourself here, and an easier-to-read summary here. The summary emphasizes the fact that the intelligence community concluded Russia did not pose a threat to the integrity of the 2016 election in the lead-up to the election. That is, it lacked the ability to affect actual vote counts. Or, as an August 31, 2016, email concluded, “The thrust of the analysis is that there is no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count through cyber means.” The Obama administration lied.

What struck me more forcibly, though, were two other points. The first is what amounts almost to a throwaway line. Russia wasn’t targeting a specific candidate, either to support or harm that candidate. Russia was meddling because doing so is a “historical pattern.” (September 9, 2016 email.) And why does Russia do this?

Well, the answer is summed up in the formal Intelligence Community Assessment – Cyber Threats to the 2016 US Presidential Election analysis included in the package. Putin’s goal was the same goal that the KGB always had; namely, to destabilize America:

[Redacted] The Kremlin’s cyber penetration of a US political party’s servers and the timing of the probable subsequent leak of stolen data suggest that Russia is motivated to exploit the period surrounding the US presidential election either to try to shape the US political environment or to advance other Russian interests. For example, Putin may simply wish to make the US electoral process appear illegitimate, or to undermine the legitimacy of the President-elect, in order to strengthen Moscow’s hand. President Putin has the will and the authority in the Russian system to act forcefully and opportunistically —and sometimes without planning for all the consequences—as he showed in occupying and annexing Crimea.

• [Redacted] The Kremlin probably expects that publicity surrounding the leaked party data will raise questions about the integrity of the US political process, as Putin hinted in a recent interview.

Viewed from that perspective, the way to foil the Russian goal is to ensure that the American people know that our elections have not been subject to foreign manipulation.

So what did the Obama administration do, on direct orders from Barack Obama himself, if the documents Tulsi Gabbard released are to be believed? (And I think they are.)

On December 9, 2016, the administration did two things. First, see page 67 of the released documents, the main actors in the administration had an all-hands-on-deck meeting of the National Security Council. And I do mean the main actors. Present were Susan Rice, James Clapper, John Kerry, Victoria Nuland (Dan Bongino listeners know her name), Andrew McCabe, John Brennan, Loretta Lynch, Ben Rhodes, and more.

This meeting saw them begin the process of demonizing Russia by depriving it of access to properties on American soil, denying it visas, and imposing sanctions. We probably remember this in connection with what came out during the James Comey attack on General Michael Flynn.

And while Obama himself wasn’t at this meeting, if you go to page 71 of the released documents, you will see the text of a December 9, 2016, email broadcast within the DNI. It reported on “POTUS [i.e., Obama] tasking at Monday’s meeting on Russia election meddling” and handing to everyone present a “TP” [talking point] about everything Russia did to interfere with elections.

These talking points list a parade of horribles that were not previously identified as matters of significance in the pre-election assessments, things such as hacking, leaks, cyber activity against voting systems, media spins and fake news, Russian intelligence efforts, etc. The email makes clear that the message from the White House was to disseminate to the public information about Russia’s ineffectual meddling, but, fraudulently, to sell it as a serious and significant crisis.

In other words, having lost an election that it was smugly certain its chosen candidate would win, the Obama administration instantly set about implementing the strategy Moscow had tried to realize in every American election since World War II: Cast doubt on the legitimacy of the American election to render the president unable to govern.

Thus, it wasn’t Russia that successfully cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2016 election; it was the Obama administration, either acting as an agent of Russia or acting independently, using Russia as its tool.

18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious conspiracy

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.