Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s release of more than 100 newly declassified documents concerning the fabrication of the Trump–Russia collusion narrative during the 2016 presidential transition cast a renewed and significant spotlight on former President Barack Obama’s role in the matter. As investigative journalist Matt Taibbi described it, the documents put Obama “squarely in Russiagate crosshairs.”
Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, President Donald Trump took things a little further. Asked a question about Ghislaine Maxwell, he redirected the conversation: “The witch hunt that you should be talking about is they caught President Obama absolutely cold.” [Transcript via RealClearPolitcs]
What they did in 2016 and in 2020 is very criminal. It’s criminal at the highest level.They have it stone cold, and it was President Obama. The leader of the gang was President Obama—Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?Look, he’s guilty. It’s not a question. … This was treason, every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things nobody’s ever even imagined. … So President Obama—it was his concept, his idea—but he also got it from crooked Hillary Clinton. Crooked as a $3 bill. Hillary Clinton and her group, the Democrats.Barack Hussein Obama is the ringleader. Hillary Clinton was right there, so was Sleepy Joe Biden. We caught Hillary Clinton, we caught Barack Hussein Obama. They’re the ones—and many, many people under them: Susan Rice, they’re all there. The names are all there. I guess they figured they’d put this in classified information and nobody would ever see it, but it doesn’t work that way. It’s the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever read.
Afterward, following what was likely a frantic round of consultations with lawyers and advisors, Obama’s office issued a very carefully-worded response to Trump’s comments.
Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement:
Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction. 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.
Gabbard responded by promising to release additional documents on Wednesday to refute the disingenuous claims made in the statement.
And she delivered.
On Wednesday, Gabbard’s office released a September 2020 House Intelligence Committee report which found that the Obama-era intelligence community lacked direct evidence that Putin was on Trump’s side, yet the “implausible” claim was still included in the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment at the “unusual” direction of Obama.
Fox News reminded readers that the Intelligence Committee was chaired at the time by then-Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a fervent Trump critic. The network noted that the “fully-sourced limited-access investigation report … was drafted and stored in a limited-access vault at CIA Headquarters” — well out of public view. Fox, which obtained a copy of the report, said it “focused on the creation” of the ICA.
[The full report can be viewed at this link.]
Perhaps one of the most damning findings in the report was the following:
The ICA suppressed intelligence showing that Putin was “not only demonstrating a clear lack of concern for Trump’s election fate,” but also indicated “that he preferred to see Secretary Clinton elected, knowing she would be a more vulnerable President.”
Here are some of the highlights:
[The ICA was a] high-profile product ordered by the President, directed by senior IC agency heads, and created by just five CIA analysts, using one principal drafter.Production of the ICA was subject to unusual directives from the President and senior political appointees, and particularly DCIA. The draft was not properly coordinated within CIA or the IC, ensuring it would be published without significant challenges to its conclusions.Hurried coordination and limited access to the draft reduced opportunities for the IC to discover misquoting of sources and other tradecraft concerns.[Brennan] ordered the post-election publication of 15 reports containing previously collected but unpublished intelligence, three of which were substandard—containing information that was unclear, of uncertain origin, potentially biased, or implausible—and those became foundational sources for the ICA judgements that Putin preferred Trump over Clinton.The ICA misrepresented these reports as reliable, without mentioning their significant underlying flaws.One scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports constitutes the only classified information cited to suggest Putin ‘aspired’ to help Trump win. The ICA ignored or selectively quoted reliable intelligence reports that challenged-and in some cases undermined—judgments that Putin sought to elect Trump.The ICA did not cite any report where Putin directly indicated helping Trump win was the objective.The ICA failed to consider plausible alternative explanations of Putin’s intentions indicated by reliable intelligence and observed Russian actions.
The committee also found that the ICA was “rushed” into production “in order to publish two weeks before President-elect Trump was sworn-in.” Additionally, the report states that two senior CIA officers warned Brennan that “we don’t have direct information that Putin wanted to get Trump elected.”
Additional findings from the report via Fox News:
It appears Gabbard effectively shot down Obama’s pathetic statement, doesn’t it?
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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