Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard published an email on Wednesday that raised a number of questions about former DNI James Clapper and how hard he pushed other members of the Intelligence Community (IC) to rally behind the Russia Hoax.
Gabbard shared a screenshot of the email, which was sent by Clapper in late December of 2016 to then FBI Director James Comey, then CIA Director John Brennan, and National Security Agency (NSA) Director Michael Rogers.
????Newly declassified Top Secret emails sent on December 22, 2016 complying with President Obama’s order to create the manufactured January 2017 ICA about Russia expose how DNI James Clapper demanded the IC fall in line behind the Russia Hoax. Clapper admits that it was a “team… pic.twitter.com/fVHq9E1no7
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) August 13, 2025
Clapper’s email was a direct response to Rogers, who raised several concerns he had about the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) — which would ultimately go to President Barack Obama’s desk — that would become the Russia hoax.
“I asked my team if they’d had sufficient access to the underlying intelligence and sufficient time to review that intelligence,” Rogers wrote earlier that same day. “On both points my team raised concerns.”
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Rogers went on to say that he would need to see everything related to the assessment if the NSA was going to be asked to co-author or sign on to the finished product, saying that he wanted to have full confidence in what they were saying before it went to the president.
Clapper responded that evening:
Understand your concern. It is essential that we (CIA/NSA/FBI/ODNI) be on the same page, and are all supportive of the report — in the highest tradition of “that’s OUR story, and we’re stickin’ to it.” This evening, CIA has provided to the NIC the complete draft generated by the ad hoc fusion cell. We will facilitate as much mutual transparency as possible as we complete the report, but, more time is not negotiable. We may have to compromise on our “normal” modalities, since we must do this on such a compressed schedule.
Clapper concluded the missive with one final thought: “This is one project that has to be a team sport.”