Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard wants the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate what she says is a “treasonous conspiracy” by former President Barack Obama and his senior advisors to concoct evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
Gabbard on Friday declassified documents that she said provides “overwhelming evidence” that Obama and his national security advisers conspired to create “a politicized piece of intelligence” to launch a years-long investigation into the now debunked Trump-Russia collusion claims.
“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.
Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
In a news release, Gabbard said the intelligence community had concluded prior to the 2016 election that Russia was “probably not trying … to influence the election by using cyber means.”
After the election in early December, “talking points were prepared for DNI James Clapper stating, ‘Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the US Presidential election outcome,’” the news release said, but after a top meeting of key Obama advisers, a new intelligence assessment was prepared, “per the President’s request,” that “directly contradicted the IC assessments that were made throughout the previous six months.”
Gabbard said she is referring the matter to DOJ for further investigation.
“After months of investigation into this matter, the facts reveal this new assessment was based on information that was known by those involved to be manufactured i.e. the Steele Dossier or deemed as not credible,” the news release said. “This was politicized intelligence that was used as the basis for countless smears seeking to delegitimize President Trump’s victory, the years-long Mueller investigation, two Congressional impeachments, high level officials being investigated, arrested, and thrown in jail, heightened US-Russia tensions, and more.”
The long-debunked Steele dossier alleged that Trump worked with Russie to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
