In a stunning revelation that threatens to reignite the long-dormant controversy surrounding the 2016 US presidential election, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has released a previously classified congressional report that, according to her, exposes a deliberate campaign by former President Barack Obama and his administration to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency. Gabbard claims the report, which was produced by the House Intelligence Committee under Republican leadership in 2020, debunks the widely accepted narrative that Russia meddled in the election to help Trump win.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter) on July 23, Gabbard described the report as a “bombshell” and “proof of the most egregious weaponization and politicization of intelligence in American history.” She accused Obama, along with his senior intelligence officials and media allies, of orchestrating what she called a “years-long coup” against Donald Trump-a coordinated disinformation campaign designed to delegitimize a sitting president.

At the core of Gabbard’s claims is the assertion that intelligence surrounding Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election was selectively distorted and manipulated to fit a political narrative. The newly released report criticizes the CIA for allegedly basing its assessment of Russian intent on what it calls “one scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports.” This, according to the committee, formed the basis for the conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin favored Trump-a claim that has shaped US politics and media discourse for nearly a decade.

Perhaps more troubling, Gabbard and the report both allege that Obama personally issued “unusual directives” to expedite the release of the intelligence community’s assessment before Trump’s inauguration. These directives reportedly bypassed standard interagency review procedures, suggesting a deliberate attempt to solidify a particular narrative before the Trump administration could take office and potentially challenge it.

This marks Gabbard’s second major declassification move as DNI. Earlier this year, she made headlines by describing a “treasonous conspiracy” within the intelligence community aimed at sabotaging Donald Trump. Her current disclosure expands on that theme, offering what she describes as concrete proof that top Democrats, including Obama, “conspired to subvert the will of the American people.”

“They used the full force of the intelligence community, coordinated with a compliant media, to sell the American public on a lie,” Gabbard stated. “This was not an intelligence failure-it was a deliberate act of political warfare.”

She has since called for a full criminal investigation into the actions of Obama-era officials, naming former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former FBI Director James Comey among those who should be held accountable.

President Donald Trump swiftly endorsed Gabbard’s findings, echoing his long-standing claim that the “Russia Hoax” was a politically motivated witch hunt. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “What Tulsi Gabbard has revealed is nothing short of TREASON. Obama and his goons must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Trump, who has long claimed that the investigation into Russian election interference was part of a broader effort to derail his presidency, praised Gabbard as a “brave truth-teller” and “the only person in intelligence leadership who’s willing to pull back the curtain.”

Predictably, Obama-era officials and their allies have pushed back against Gabbard’s allegations. John Brennan dismissed the report as “partisan fiction,” while Clapper called it “a cherry-picked, one-sided document designed to rewrite history.”

“Every major US intelligence agency agreed that Russia interfered in the 2016 election with the intent to help Donald Trump,” Brennan told MSNBC. “Tulsi Gabbard is distorting classified information to fit a dangerous political agenda.”

Still, the timing of Obama’s actions-as detailed in the report-raises serious questions about the use of presidential authority during transitions of power. According to the document, Obama personally oversaw the rapid compilation and dissemination of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which concluded that Russia had interfered in the election to support Trump. That assessment was presented to both Trump and outgoing President Obama in early January 2017, just days before Trump’s inauguration.

One of Gabbard’s more damning claims is that internal assessments within the intelligence community actually downplayed Russia’s intent and capability to interfere in the election. These dissenting views, she asserts, were deliberately excluded from the final reports and suppressed within intelligence circles.

“There was no consensus,” Gabbard emphasized. “In fact, multiple agencies warned that Russia lacked the operational capability and strategic intent to materially influence the outcome of the election. But those findings were buried because they didn’t serve the narrative.”

This is consistent with criticisms leveled in 2018 and 2019 by dissenting voices within the intelligence and law enforcement communities who argued that the so-called “Russian collusion” narrative was thinly sourced and based on flawed information, such as the now-discredited Steele Dossier.

Russia, for its part, has continued to deny any involvement in the US election. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that Moscow does not interfere in the domestic politics of other countries and does not favor any particular American political figure.

At a press conference earlier this week, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “These ongoing revelations only confirm what we have said for years. Russia was made a scapegoat to serve internal American political goals.”

The implications of Gabbard’s revelations are enormous. If her claims are verified and criminal investigations are launched, it could mark one of the most consequential political scandals in American history-one involving a sitting president allegedly weaponizing intelligence to sabotage a duly elected successor.

In a hyper-polarized America, where trust in institutions is already strained, this report could become yet another flashpoint in the ongoing battle over the future of the country’s democratic norms. Whether Gabbard’s claims lead to prosecutions or are dismissed as partisan overreach remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: the so-called “Russia Hoax” is far from dead-and Tulsi Gabbard may have just brought it back to life with explosive consequences.

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Source: Weekly Blitz :: Writings