Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday released an earth-shattering report detailing how federal agencies under the Obama administration manipulated intelligence findings to concoct and promote the Russiagate hoax.
This, along with earlier revelations about how intelligence agencies pushed the false narrative about President Donald Trump and Russia, shows just how deep the scheme ran.
In the lead-up to the 2016 election, multiple internal assessments concluded that the Russian government was not trying to influence the outcome of the race, according to a memo that Gabbard released. Multiple intelligence agencies came to the same conclusion.
On August 31, 2016, “a DHS official tells former DNI James Clapper that there was ‘no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count.’”
Nevertheless, the FBI allegedly asked the agencies to water down their assessments to avoid coming to solid conclusions. On September 2, the Bureau asked that a whistleblower’s report be “softened” and acknowledged that they were “uncomfortable” with implying “definitive information that Russia does intend to disrupt our elections.”
Later, an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) insisted that the next Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) should affirm that the Kremlin “probably is not trying…to influence the elction by using cyber means.” Several IC officials concurred.
These assessments resulted in the September 12 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) which noted that “foreign adversaries do not have and will probably not obtain the capabilities to successfully execute widespread and undetected cyber attacks on election infrastructure.”
After Trump won the 2016 election, intelligence officials reaffirmed that Russian cyber operations had not influenced the outcome. However, the assessment was abruptly suppressed. In December, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s office started compiling a new Presidential Daily Briefing that also confirmed that Russia did not sway the results of the race.
However, Gabbard’s memo notes that the FBI “inexplicably withdraws from coordinating on the product” and expressed plans to draft a dissent. Later in the day, a senior PDB official kills the PDB ‘based on some new guidance.’” The original briefing, noting that Russia did not affect the election, was never published.
Top Obama administration officials began meeting in December 2016 to discuss Russia’s election interference efforts. The press began reporting on the claims immediately after. Internal records reveal that there was still no IC documentation indicating that the Kremlin employed cyberattacks to influence the election. Nevertheless, “Deep State officials in the IC begin leaking blatantly false intelligence to the Washington Post…claiming that Russia used ‘cyber means’ to influence ‘the outcome of the election,’” according to the memo.
🧵 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
Another flood of leaks occurred later in the month. “IC officials again leak to the media, this time claiming that IC officials believe ‘with a high level of confidence’ that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in the ‘U.S. Election Hack.’”
Former President Barack Obama chimed in on the matter days later, noting that there was no “evidence of machines being tampered with,” but that he was concerned about “potential hacking that could hamper vote counting and affect the actual election process.”
Fast-forwarding to January 6, 2017, the Intelligence Community released another assessment that excluded evidence that Russia had impacted the election. “As for the 2017 ICA’s judgment of a decisive Russian preference for then-candidate Donald Trump, I could not concur in good conscience based on information available, and my professional analytics judgement,” the ODNI whistleblower wrote.”
The individual recalled that his superior told him, “you need to trust me on this” and referred to reporting that the whistleblower was “not allowed to see.” The final ICA that was publicized claimed Russia had meddled in the election to help Trump win based on “further information” that had “come to light” after the election.
Of course, that “further information” was later revealed to be the infamous Steele Dossier, whose contents have been debunked many times over since it first surfaced. The memo explains that the ICA “suppresses intelligence from before and after the election showing Russia lacked intent and capability to hack the 2016 election.” The ICA “deceives the American public by claiming the IC did not assess the ‘impact’ of Russian activities.”
Forces within the Intelligence Community sidelined the whistleblower and concealed the inclusion of the Steele Dossier in the final report. “Late December 2016 — Due to the ODNI Whistleblower’s questioning his leadership about why an IC assessment was being created that contradicted multiple IC assessments, the whistleblower is immediately removed from emails regarding the drafting of the Obama-ordered IC assessment,” the memo reads.
It was not until 2019 that the whistleblower learned the Steele Dossier played a role in the ICA.
At this point, there is nothing shocking here. The claim that Russia had meddled in the 2016 election to help Trump win was always questionable at best and an entire government-funded hoax at worst. The revelations coming in Trump’s second term only solidify what many already knew.
But what is truly galling about this fiasco is that nobody will be held accountable. We have seen rampant Deep State corruption in the federal government over the past decade. The nation has witnessed how nefarious forces sought to weaponize federal agencies against the president without facing any real consequences. I see no reason to believe that there will be any accountabilty — although I hope to be wrong on this.
The memo highlights just how broken our two-tiered justice system works. Here is the question that I have in light of this: f corrupt government officials can literally use the power of government to attack a political opponent without consequences, how much worse could they do to everyday Americans who lack the resources to fight back?