OAN Staff Blake Wolf
2:50 PM – Wednesday, July 23, 2025
On Wednesday, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard released a classified House report from 2020, further discrediting the narrative that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to interfere in the 2016 election — on behalf of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The newly-declassified House Intelligence Committee report, originally drafted in 2017, detailed issues with the conclusion reached in 2016 that Putin preferred Trump.
Gabbard announced that President Trump had directed the declassification of the report, which “exposes how the Obama Administration manufactured the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that they knew was false, prompting the LIE that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government helped President Trump win the 2016 election.”
“I doing so, they conspired to subvert the will of the American people, working with their partners in the media to promote the lie, in order to undermine the legitimacy of President Trump, essentially enacting a years-long coup against him,” she added.
Five CIA analysts and a principal drafter prepared the ICA, under pressure from leadership—most notably former CIA Director John Brennan and others in the Obama administration—despite appeals from other analysts to exclude unverified material, the Washington Examiner reported.
Gabbard explained that the previous intelligence assessment confirmed that Russia had “lacked the intent and capability to hack U.S. elections,” and that “Putin had no preference for either candidate.”
However, despite the assessment, Gabbard says that then-President Obama “pulled” the briefing and instead met with FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and National Intelligence Director James Clapper. The Democrat president then requested that the men provide a brand new intelligence assessment in order to “claim [the] election was ‘hacked'” — she continued.
The newly-released House report reveals further that the CIA “did not adhere to the tenets” of analytical standards, instead opting to utilize “one scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports” to push a narrative undermining President Donald Trump’s legitimacy.
Gabbard later characterized the report as “the most egregious weaponization and politicization of intelligence in American history.”
The day before the findings were released, President Trump issued a Truth Social post on Tuesday, declaring: “Obama himself manufactured the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe, and numerous others participated in this, THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY!. Irrefutable EVIDENCE. A major threat to our Country!!!”
Additionally, Gabbard released documents detailing Putin’s efforts to hold off on leaking compromising information on Hillary Clinton prior to the 2016 election.
The declassified reports emphasized that Clinton suffered from “psycho-emotional problems” during the 2016 election, and that she was on “heavy tranquilizers.”
“This report shows Putin held back from leaking compromising material on Hillary Clinton prior to the election, instead planning to release it after the election to weaken what Moscow viewed as an inevitable Clinton presidency,” Gabbard said.
“In the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that President Obama ordered, John Brennan, who was CIA Director at the time, and the Intelligence Community, intentionally suppressed intelligence that showed Putin was saving the most damaging material that he had in his possession about Hillary Clinton until after her potential and likely victory.”
“There were high-level DNC emails that detailed evidence of Hillary’s, ‘quote’ ‘psycho-emotional problems,’ uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression and cheerfulness, and that then Secretary Clinton was allegedly on a daily regimen of heavy tranquilizers,” Gabbard added.
“Then-CIA Director Brennan and the intelligence community mischaracterized intelligence and relied on dubious substandard sources to create a contrived false narrative that Putin developed a quote-unquote clear preference for Trump.”
Gabbard confirmed on Friday last week that former President Barack Obama has already been referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in case the agency wishes to potentially pursue criminal charges. However, receiving a referral does not mean charges have been filed. There is currently no indication that the DOJ has opened a formal criminal investigation or moved toward charging Obama.
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