DNI Tulsi Gabbard doubled down on her allegations that Obama administration officials politicized intelligence and laid the groundwork for a "yearslong coup" against President Donald Trump after he won the 2016 election.
Gabbard told "Jesse Watters Primetime" Wednesday that there were "deep state obstacles" to releasing her information about the Trump-Russia collusion investigation and that some people within the intelligence community (IC) didn't want it to "see the light of day."
"There are a lot of deep state actors still here within Washington. President Trump wants us to find the truth. I want to find that truth. The American people deserve the truth, and they deserve accountability, which is I'm really glad to see that Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice announced the creation of a strike force team today," she said.
"Specifically, to get after all the intelligence and evidence that we have gathered. We have more coming and to determine the path forward to bring about that accountability."
The top U.S. spy chief contended last week in a viral post on X that former President Barack Obama and key members of his national security team, including then-CIA Director John Brennan and then-DNI James Clapper, fabricated a narrative about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election to "subvert" Trump’s presidency.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard talks to reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on July 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Gabbard released more than 100 declassified documents on the intelligence community’s assessment, both before and after the 2016 election, regarding the consensus on potential Russian influence.
"For months preceding the 2016 election, the Intelligence Community shared a consensus view: Russia lacked the intent and capability to hack U.S. elections," she wrote on X. "But weeks after President Trump’s historic 2016 victory defeating Hillary Clinton, everything changed."
In the social media thread, the former Democratic congresswoman alleged that Obama "directed the IC to create a new intelligence assessment that detailed Russian election meddling, even though it would contradict multiple intelligence assessments released over the previous several months."
Former President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the years-long Trump–Russia collusion probe, according to declassified documents released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
An Obama spokesperson pushed back on Gabbard’s "outrageous" and "bizarre" allegations in a rare statement Tuesday as attempted distractions.
"Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio," the spokesperson said.
Ned Price, a former Obama NSC official, also pushed back on Gabbard’s claims in a Fox News op-ed, arguing the director is trying to overturn "established facts with conspiratorial fiction."
He said that Gabbard conflated the terms "hack" and "influence."
A 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, backed by then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., found that Russia did not "hack" election infrastructure such as changing votes or manipulating voting machines.
It did, however, conclude that the Russian government worked to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions and voting processes.
Rubio, now the Secretary of State, said in a 2020 press release that the committee’s investigation did not find evidence that then-candidate Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new policies surrounding visas on Wednesday. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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"What the Committee did find however is very troubling. We found irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling," he wrote, while taking aim at the FBI for relying on the now widely criticized Steele dossier.
"The Committee found that the Russian government engaged in an aggressive, multi-faceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election."
"WikiLeaks actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russian influence campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort," he continued, referring to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s emails during the presidential campaign.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and US Vice President nominee Tim Kaine stand with their families on stage at the end of the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 28, 2016. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Gabbard, who sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice over the declassified documents, told Fox News host Jesse Watters that she’ll continue pursuing accountability for the American people.
Trump has accused Obama of "treason" following Gabbard’s revelations and recently reposted a video that appeared to be generated with AI on his Truth Social account that showed the 44th president being arrested in the Oval Office.