Top officials from former President Barack Obamaʼs administration suppressed a key intelligence assessment in December 2016 that concluded Russia had not interfered with voting systems or altered the outcome of the presidential election, then ordered the creation of a new narrative alleging the opposite, according to newly declassified documents.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified and released the records Friday, calling them “overwhelming evidence” that the Obama administration “manufactured and politicized intelligence” to justify what would become a yearslong campaign to undermine President Donald Trump.
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???? Americans will finally learn the truth about how in 2016, intelligence was politicized and weaponized by the most powerful people in the Obama Administration to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President @realDonaldTrump, subverting the… pic.twitter.com/UQKKZ5c4Op
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) July 18, 2025
“These documents detail a treasonous conspiracy by officials at the highest levels of the Obama White House to subvert the will of the American people and try to usurp the President from fulfilling his mandate,” Gabbard wrote on X.
Among the documents is a draft of the Dec. 8, 2016, President’s Daily Brief, which concluded that “Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent U.S. election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure.” Intelligence agencies, including the CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and National Security Agency, contributed to the product.
But the PDB was abruptly pulled, with a deputy director writing in an internal email that, “based on some new guidance, we are going to push back publication.” The following day, Obama convened senior national security leaders — including then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-FBI Director James Comey, then-DNI James Clapper, and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, among others — for a high-level meeting in the White House Situation Room.
According to a summary of that meeting, intelligence officials were instructed to produce a new assessment “per the president’s request,” outlining how Russia allegedly used cyber tools to influence the election. The effort was to be led by the Office of the DNI, with direct participation from the CIA, FBI, NSA, and DHS.
Internal emails and intelligence community talking points from as late as Dec. 7, 2016, just one day before the PDB was pulled, reaffirmed that Russia “probably was not (and will not) trying to influence the election by using cyber means,” and that “foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the U.S. presidential election outcome.”
Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii now serving under Trump, said Obama officials didn’t just twist existing intelligence, they created the very idea of “Russian election meddling” and then leaked selective claims to sympathetic media outlets to bolster the narrative despite it contradicting “multiple intelligence assessments released over the previous several months.”
Obama officials immediately leaned on their allies in the media to advance their falsehoods. Anonymous IC sources leaked classified information to the Washington Post and others that Russia had intervened to hack the election in Trump's favor. pic.twitter.com/eHdPaGfxbD
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) July 18, 2025
She cited Dec. 9 and Dec. 14, 2016, articles in the Washington Post and NBC News that relied on anonymous intelligence officials claiming Russian President Vladimir Putin personally intervened to help Trump win. “The information we are releasing today clearly shows this was false,” she said.
One newly declassified communication revealed that the FBI lodged a “dissent” with the original PDB and delayed its release until it could be altered. Another email confirmed that Clapper’s assistant moved forward with a new narrative the very next day, at Obama’s direction.
Gabbard also confirmed she is turning all records over to the Justice Department: “I am providing all documents to the Department of Justice to deliver the accountability that President Trump, his family, and the American people deserve.”
The disclosures come amid a separate criminal investigation into Brennan and Comey. Brennan, in particular, is accused of pushing for the discredited Steele dossier, later determined by CIA consensus to be based on “internet rumor,” to be included in the final January 2017 intelligence community assessment.
Gabbard said the dossier was knowingly used to build a fraudulent foundation for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against Trump campaign figures and to mislead the public, according to whistleblower emails shared with her agency Friday.
“This betrayal concerns every American,” Gabbard said. “The integrity of our democratic republic demands that every person involved be investigated and brought to justice to prevent this from ever happening again.”
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Congressional Republicans have long accused Comey, Brennan, and Clapper of misleading the public and Congress about Russian interference, but the Gabbard disclosures mark the first time a sitting DNI has confirmed internal efforts to suppress contrary intelligence in the days following Trump’s election.
The Washington Examiner contacted the Justice Department to inquire if officials had received the documents from the DNI.