Gerren Keith Gaynor
Thu, July 24, 2025
THE GRIO
(Photo: Getty Images)
In a letter, CBC members accuse National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard of “blatant misuse” of her role to “shield” Trump, who they describe as a “34-time convicted felon and adjudicated rapist from facing the truth.”
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus came out swinging in a letter to the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who, along with President Donald Trump, has accused, without evidence, President Barack Obama of committing treason. The group of nearly two dozen Black lawmakers are calling on Gabbard to “immediately” resign.
Gabbard’s office recently released declassified documents, claiming them as “overwhelming evidence” that Obama and his senior staff “manufactured and politicized” intelligence evidence against President Trump related to Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“This is not only categorically false; it is a dangerous and deliberate distortion of reality,” reads the letter, led by U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif. “As Director of National Intelligence, your job is to safeguard truth, not spread propaganda. Instead, you have abused your position to promote a partisan narrative rooted in conspiracy and discredited claims.”
Some of the letter’s signees include U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas; Yvette D. Clarke, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; and LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., who is controversially facing charges brought by the Trump administration.
Kamlager-Dove told theGrio it was important for the Congressional Black Caucus, as the “conscience of the Congress” to get in front of the very public attacks on Obama. The congresswoman condemned Gabbard and the Trump administration for their public campaign to “malign” America’s first Black president.
(Photo: Getty Images)
In a letter, CBC members accuse National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard of “blatant misuse” of her role to “shield” Trump, who they describe as a “34-time convicted felon and adjudicated rapist from facing the truth.”
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus came out swinging in a letter to the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who, along with President Donald Trump, has accused, without evidence, President Barack Obama of committing treason. The group of nearly two dozen Black lawmakers are calling on Gabbard to “immediately” resign.
Gabbard’s office recently released declassified documents, claiming them as “overwhelming evidence” that Obama and his senior staff “manufactured and politicized” intelligence evidence against President Trump related to Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“This is not only categorically false; it is a dangerous and deliberate distortion of reality,” reads the letter, led by U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif. “As Director of National Intelligence, your job is to safeguard truth, not spread propaganda. Instead, you have abused your position to promote a partisan narrative rooted in conspiracy and discredited claims.”
Some of the letter’s signees include U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas; Yvette D. Clarke, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; and LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., who is controversially facing charges brought by the Trump administration.
Kamlager-Dove told theGrio it was important for the Congressional Black Caucus, as the “conscience of the Congress” to get in front of the very public attacks on Obama. The congresswoman condemned Gabbard and the Trump administration for their public campaign to “malign” America’s first Black president.
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 12: U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) speaks during a news conference on the nomination of Kash Patel to be the next FBI Director at the U.S. Capitol on February 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)More
She told theGrio former President Obama had “far more integrity attached to his legacy than this current administration will ever know.”
Gabbard’s public release of Russia-related intelligence assessments involving former Obama officials has been heavily criticized by Democrats, who say the Trump administration is targeting Obama to distract from the political controversy that has faced President Donald Trump amid reports that he is mentioned in the FBI files related to convicted sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Despite Trump’s vow to release the full Epstein files, his administration announced in a DOJ memo that it would do no such thing. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have dismissed the calls for their release, arguing that much of its content involves explicit images and details about child sexual abuse.
However, calls for the Epstein files’ release have sustained–from Democrats and Republicans–amid reports that Trump was informed by Bondi that his name is mentioned in the documents. That fact has only fueled concerns about whether or not President Trump is hiding something.
The letter from the CBC accuses Gabbard of “blatant misuse” of her role as National Intelligence Director to “shield” Trump, who they describe as a “34-time convicted felon and adjudicated rapist.” They added, “[It’s] not only a moral failure, but a glaring betrayal of the very Constitution that you swore an oath to uphold.”
Trump’s latest attack on Obama is part of a years-long political feud. Trump’s political rise is tied to the racist “birther” conspiracy that Obama, the son of a white mother from Kansas and a Kenyan father, was not born in America and therefore not a U.S. citizen. Ironically, Trump is now aiming to end birthright citizenship in an attempt to mass deport immigrants.
(Photo: Getty Images)
Kamlager-Dove said she is not surprised by Trump taking aim at Obama, but said his call for Obama’s arrest over unproven claims is a “new low.” She explained, “I think it just goes back to the fact that he is deeply afraid of what’s in those [Epstein] files.”
More in Politics
John Bolton slams Tulsi Gabbard over ‘treasonous’ Obama report: ‘She’s imagined evidence that doesn’t exist’
The Independent
The congresswoman said Trump is also “jealous” of Obama and “incredibly intimidated” by Black Americans, telling theGrio, “We are living rent free in his head every single day.”
The CBC letter calls out Gabbard for her “poor judgment,” noting that while it is not her first, her targeting of Obama is her “most egregious” offense.
“The Intelligence Community must be guided by objectivity, professionalism, and fidelity to the facts. You have demonstrated none of these. Instead, you have politicized your office, undermined public trust, and embarrassed the very institution you were entrusted to lead,” said the group of Black lawmakers.
Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesperson for Obama, condemned the Trump administration’s “bizarre allegations” as “ridiculous and 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,” he said.
Kamlager-Dove, whose letter highlights Trump’s criminal record, said amid the Epstein controversy and the “distraction” campaign against Obama, it’s “important that we remember who Donald Trump is.”
“He was found liable. He does have a history of toxic interactions with women, and the Epstein files is a story about women being assaulted, being abused, possibly even being trafficked, and that being allowed to happen, and in fact, that being condoned and protected by the rich and powerful,” she told theGrio.
She added, “There’s a direct link between that story and this administration and who this person is.”
Trump’s chilling accusation against Obama will have cataclysmic consequences
John Casey
Thu, July 24, 2025
Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit Advocate.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.
This article originally appeared on Advocate: Trump’s chilling accusation against Obama will have cataclysmic consequences
John Casey
Thu, July 24, 2025
THE ADVOCATE
ear bandaged President Donald Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention alongside US President Barack Obama holding diploma and gold medal at ceremony after winning Nobel prize
Long before he descended that revolting gold escalator, Donald Trump found his political footing on a lie, a deeply racist one. The “birther” conspiracy, which falsely claimed that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, was not just a fringe delusion.
Trump mainstreamed it. He nurtured it. And he wielded it cynically to stoke white grievance and vault himself into the political spotlight. That lie was the foundation for his eventual run in 2016. And now, nearly a decade later, Trump has doubled down with something even more dangerous. He’s accusing Obama of treason.
It’s blasphemy, multiplied by a hundred.
The birther conspiracy was not just a harmless political jab. It was designed to delegitimize the nation’s first Black president in the eyes of white America. It was sinister. It was racist — that bears repeating. And it worked. Trump’s relentless questioning of Obama’s citizenship signaled to millions that he was willing to say what others wouldn’t.
It endeared him to the most toxic elements of the right, and launched him straight into the 2016 Republican primaries. And when Obama roasted him at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, a sorry-faced Trump presumably vowed revenge, starting with the 2016 election, reasoning why not show them all..
Trump is such a petty man, as Obama soars above him, and that pisses the petty man off.
That election, as confirmed by both U.S. intelligence and bipartisan Senate findings, was hijacked by foreign interference. Russia did interfere in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump. That isn’t partisan spin. It’s the official conclusion of the Senate Intelligence Committee, then cochaired by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who now of course is the Trump’s bootlicking secretary of State.
It’s backed by the Mueller report, by unanimous findings from Trump’s own intelligence chiefs, and even by Tulsi Gabbard, now Trump’s own director of national intelligence, who acknowledged the interference on Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2018.
And yet, Gabbard has now orchestrated a grotesque reversal to serve her boss. Her new “investigative” report, shamefully labeling the assertions of Russian interference a “seditious conspiracy,” attempts to pin the blame for said interference not on Trump’s campaign (where it belongs) but on President Obama.
It’s a stomach-turning betrayal of truth and patriotism, and it reveals how far Trump’s inner circle is willing to go to feed his obsession with retribution. Obama essentially made Trump look like a liar with the “birther” controversy, and Trump wants revenge.
The truth is Barack Obama had zero influence on the bipartisan Senate report, zero influence on the Mueller investigation, and zero participation in any fabricated “conspiracy.” His administration warned about Russian interference. Trump’s people welcomed it. And now, in a grotesque act of projection, they’re blaming Obama for their own disgrace.
That’s really it. Trump knows Obama can disgrace him, so Trump attempts to disgrace Obama, and in turn becomes a disgrace.
And Trump, never one to let go of a lie, took it a step further. In an unhinged rant, he accused Obama of treason and suggested he should be prosecuted. This is no longer politics based on being embarrassed by Obama more than once. It’s a fascist fantasy. Trump, the man who pardoned actual seditionists from the January 6 insurrection, is now smearing the most admired president in modern American history.
This isn’t just wrong. It’s dangerous.
Let’s not underestimate the consequences. Trump’s MAGA base, riled up once before by the birther lie, now has new marching orders. They’ve already shown they’re willing to take violent action based on Trump’s words. And now he’s accusing Obama, without evidence, of the highest crime in the nation. This is a red line. Someone could get hurt. Someone could get killed.
Make no mistake: When Donald Trump calls Barack Obama “treasonous,” he’s lighting the same match he used to ignite the birther lie. This is a calculated attempt to inflame his white supremacist base with the ugliest weapon in his arsenal, and that is racist hate dressed up as patriotism.
Even President Obama, usually restrained in his public comments, felt compelled to respond. In a statement, he denounced the accusations as “completely baseless” and “profoundly irresponsible.” And they are. But Obama’s response won’t reach MAGA America. They’ll believe Trump. They always do. Truth doesn’t matter in a movement built on lies.
In fact, they despise Obama and everything he stands for, which includes honesty and decency, something severely lacking in political discourse at the moment.
And the timing is no coincidence. Trump is on a scorched-earth retribution tour. From threatening to prosecute journalists to installing loyalists like Gabbard to rewrite history, Trump’s authoritarian turn is no longer hypothetical. It’s here. And it’s getting worse.
His enablers, Rubio, Gabbard, and others, know the truth. They read the same reports. They know Russia interfered. They know Obama didn’t conspire. But they are willing to lie, to defame, and to endanger lives to keep Trump’s ego intact. It’s shameful. It’s disqualifying. And in any functioning democracy, it would be criminal.
Trump built his movement on a lie. But this new lie, this grotesque, reckless accusation of treason, is a threat to the republic itself. It poisons the well of democratic discourse. It incites hatred. And it opens the door to political violence on a scale we’ve never seen before.
It’s hard to grasp the severity of this, but we can’t look away, and we most certainly can’t normalize it. And we can’t wait until someone is harmed to say, “We should have known.”
However, I have a genuine concern and fear that that is what’s going to happen.
ear bandaged President Donald Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention alongside US President Barack Obama holding diploma and gold medal at ceremony after winning Nobel prize
Long before he descended that revolting gold escalator, Donald Trump found his political footing on a lie, a deeply racist one. The “birther” conspiracy, which falsely claimed that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, was not just a fringe delusion.
Trump mainstreamed it. He nurtured it. And he wielded it cynically to stoke white grievance and vault himself into the political spotlight. That lie was the foundation for his eventual run in 2016. And now, nearly a decade later, Trump has doubled down with something even more dangerous. He’s accusing Obama of treason.
It’s blasphemy, multiplied by a hundred.
The birther conspiracy was not just a harmless political jab. It was designed to delegitimize the nation’s first Black president in the eyes of white America. It was sinister. It was racist — that bears repeating. And it worked. Trump’s relentless questioning of Obama’s citizenship signaled to millions that he was willing to say what others wouldn’t.
It endeared him to the most toxic elements of the right, and launched him straight into the 2016 Republican primaries. And when Obama roasted him at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, a sorry-faced Trump presumably vowed revenge, starting with the 2016 election, reasoning why not show them all..
Trump is such a petty man, as Obama soars above him, and that pisses the petty man off.
That election, as confirmed by both U.S. intelligence and bipartisan Senate findings, was hijacked by foreign interference. Russia did interfere in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump. That isn’t partisan spin. It’s the official conclusion of the Senate Intelligence Committee, then cochaired by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who now of course is the Trump’s bootlicking secretary of State.
It’s backed by the Mueller report, by unanimous findings from Trump’s own intelligence chiefs, and even by Tulsi Gabbard, now Trump’s own director of national intelligence, who acknowledged the interference on Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2018.
And yet, Gabbard has now orchestrated a grotesque reversal to serve her boss. Her new “investigative” report, shamefully labeling the assertions of Russian interference a “seditious conspiracy,” attempts to pin the blame for said interference not on Trump’s campaign (where it belongs) but on President Obama.
It’s a stomach-turning betrayal of truth and patriotism, and it reveals how far Trump’s inner circle is willing to go to feed his obsession with retribution. Obama essentially made Trump look like a liar with the “birther” controversy, and Trump wants revenge.
The truth is Barack Obama had zero influence on the bipartisan Senate report, zero influence on the Mueller investigation, and zero participation in any fabricated “conspiracy.” His administration warned about Russian interference. Trump’s people welcomed it. And now, in a grotesque act of projection, they’re blaming Obama for their own disgrace.
That’s really it. Trump knows Obama can disgrace him, so Trump attempts to disgrace Obama, and in turn becomes a disgrace.
And Trump, never one to let go of a lie, took it a step further. In an unhinged rant, he accused Obama of treason and suggested he should be prosecuted. This is no longer politics based on being embarrassed by Obama more than once. It’s a fascist fantasy. Trump, the man who pardoned actual seditionists from the January 6 insurrection, is now smearing the most admired president in modern American history.
This isn’t just wrong. It’s dangerous.
Let’s not underestimate the consequences. Trump’s MAGA base, riled up once before by the birther lie, now has new marching orders. They’ve already shown they’re willing to take violent action based on Trump’s words. And now he’s accusing Obama, without evidence, of the highest crime in the nation. This is a red line. Someone could get hurt. Someone could get killed.
Make no mistake: When Donald Trump calls Barack Obama “treasonous,” he’s lighting the same match he used to ignite the birther lie. This is a calculated attempt to inflame his white supremacist base with the ugliest weapon in his arsenal, and that is racist hate dressed up as patriotism.
Even President Obama, usually restrained in his public comments, felt compelled to respond. In a statement, he denounced the accusations as “completely baseless” and “profoundly irresponsible.” And they are. But Obama’s response won’t reach MAGA America. They’ll believe Trump. They always do. Truth doesn’t matter in a movement built on lies.
In fact, they despise Obama and everything he stands for, which includes honesty and decency, something severely lacking in political discourse at the moment.
And the timing is no coincidence. Trump is on a scorched-earth retribution tour. From threatening to prosecute journalists to installing loyalists like Gabbard to rewrite history, Trump’s authoritarian turn is no longer hypothetical. It’s here. And it’s getting worse.
His enablers, Rubio, Gabbard, and others, know the truth. They read the same reports. They know Russia interfered. They know Obama didn’t conspire. But they are willing to lie, to defame, and to endanger lives to keep Trump’s ego intact. It’s shameful. It’s disqualifying. And in any functioning democracy, it would be criminal.
Trump built his movement on a lie. But this new lie, this grotesque, reckless accusation of treason, is a threat to the republic itself. It poisons the well of democratic discourse. It incites hatred. And it opens the door to political violence on a scale we’ve never seen before.
It’s hard to grasp the severity of this, but we can’t look away, and we most certainly can’t normalize it. And we can’t wait until someone is harmed to say, “We should have known.”
However, I have a genuine concern and fear that that is what’s going to happen.
Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit Advocate.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.
This article originally appeared on Advocate: Trump’s chilling accusation against Obama will have cataclysmic consequences
GOP Senator Says Timing Of Tulsi Gabbard's Obama Conspiracy Push Seems Curious
Marita Vlachou
Thu, July 24, 2025
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Wednesday said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s claims that former President Barack Obama’s administration orchestrated a “yearslong coup and treasonous conspiracy” to undermine Donald Trump seems to be part of an effort by the White House to sweep the Jeffrey Epstein controversy under the rug.
In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Murkowski said Gabbard’s actions suggest the Trump administration is “trying to deflect” from questions surrounding Epstein by resorting to “things that may be prior history.”
“Words like treason are big words, right?” Murkowski said.
“It does cause one to wonder if this is an effort by folks in the administration to have the conversation move on to something else, other than the Epstein matter, move on to something else, another, somebody other than President Trump so let’s go back to prior presidents,” she added.
Asked if she thinks Gabbard’s actions are a “distraction technique,” the Alaska senator replied: “Based on the timing of all of this, it does kind of cause you to question.”
Trump last week falsely claimed that he had no help from Russia in the 2016 presidential election, accusing Obama of the “highest level Election Fraud.” His baseless accusations were echoed by Gabbard, who sought to rewrite history by releasing a document that she said undercut the intelligence community’s claim that the Kremlin wanted Trump to win the 2016 race.
Both special counsel Robert Mueller and the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee had concluded that Russia actively worked to help Trump win.
Meanwhile, Murkowski urged Trump to release all files related to Epstein to put the issue behind him once and for all.
“Just be done with it. Be done with it,” she said. “If, in fact, there’s no there there for the president, get it out there. Just get it out there and be done.”
The controversy has been heating up in recent weeks following the release of a memo by the FBI and the Justice Department earlier this month asserting there was no evidence to suggest Epstein’s death wasn’t a suicide or that he held a client list to blackmail people. The document directly undercut Attorney General Pam Bondi’s comments to Fox News in February that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”
Trump’s efforts to diffuse interest into the story, soliciting the help of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have been fruitless against an onslaught of reports prompting renewed scrutiny into his ties to Epstein, who died in federal prison one month after being arrested on charges of sex trafficking minors in 2019, during Trump’s first term in office.
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that Bondi told Trump in May that his name was in the Epstein files multiple times. The fact that Trump was named in the files does not suggest he committed any wrongdoing, the Journal noted. Trump’s team dismissed the story as “fake news.”
James Carville Gives Fox News Viewers An Uncomfortable Reminder About Jeffrey Epstein
HuffPost
The outlet had previously reported the president had written a “bawdy” letter to Epstein in 2003 as part of a surprise for the disgraced financier’s 50th birthday put together by his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump sued the paper for libel over the report, which he described as untruthful.
CNN this week also released photos showing Epstein attending Trump’s wedding to Marla Maples as well as video showing the two men appearing at a Victoria’s Secret fashion event in 1999.
‘Pod Save America’ on Gabbard’s Obama allegations: ‘Crock of s‑‑‑’
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Wednesday said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s claims that former President Barack Obama’s administration orchestrated a “yearslong coup and treasonous conspiracy” to undermine Donald Trump seems to be part of an effort by the White House to sweep the Jeffrey Epstein controversy under the rug.
In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Murkowski said Gabbard’s actions suggest the Trump administration is “trying to deflect” from questions surrounding Epstein by resorting to “things that may be prior history.”
“Words like treason are big words, right?” Murkowski said.
“It does cause one to wonder if this is an effort by folks in the administration to have the conversation move on to something else, other than the Epstein matter, move on to something else, another, somebody other than President Trump so let’s go back to prior presidents,” she added.
Asked if she thinks Gabbard’s actions are a “distraction technique,” the Alaska senator replied: “Based on the timing of all of this, it does kind of cause you to question.”
Trump last week falsely claimed that he had no help from Russia in the 2016 presidential election, accusing Obama of the “highest level Election Fraud.” His baseless accusations were echoed by Gabbard, who sought to rewrite history by releasing a document that she said undercut the intelligence community’s claim that the Kremlin wanted Trump to win the 2016 race.
Both special counsel Robert Mueller and the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee had concluded that Russia actively worked to help Trump win.
Meanwhile, Murkowski urged Trump to release all files related to Epstein to put the issue behind him once and for all.
“Just be done with it. Be done with it,” she said. “If, in fact, there’s no there there for the president, get it out there. Just get it out there and be done.”
The controversy has been heating up in recent weeks following the release of a memo by the FBI and the Justice Department earlier this month asserting there was no evidence to suggest Epstein’s death wasn’t a suicide or that he held a client list to blackmail people. The document directly undercut Attorney General Pam Bondi’s comments to Fox News in February that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”
Trump’s efforts to diffuse interest into the story, soliciting the help of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have been fruitless against an onslaught of reports prompting renewed scrutiny into his ties to Epstein, who died in federal prison one month after being arrested on charges of sex trafficking minors in 2019, during Trump’s first term in office.
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that Bondi told Trump in May that his name was in the Epstein files multiple times. The fact that Trump was named in the files does not suggest he committed any wrongdoing, the Journal noted. Trump’s team dismissed the story as “fake news.”
James Carville Gives Fox News Viewers An Uncomfortable Reminder About Jeffrey Epstein
HuffPost
The outlet had previously reported the president had written a “bawdy” letter to Epstein in 2003 as part of a surprise for the disgraced financier’s 50th birthday put together by his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump sued the paper for libel over the report, which he described as untruthful.
CNN this week also released photos showing Epstein attending Trump’s wedding to Marla Maples as well as video showing the two men appearing at a Victoria’s Secret fashion event in 1999.
‘Pod Save America’ on Gabbard’s Obama allegations: ‘Crock of s‑‑‑’
Amalia Huot-Marchand
Fri, July 25, 2025
‘Pod Save America’ on Gabbard’s Obama allegations: ‘Crock of s‑‑‑’
“Pod Save America” host Dan Pfeiffer railed against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s accusations that the Obama administration led a “treasonous coup” over the 2016 election.
“I don’t think we should call this a scandal,” Pfeiffer, a onetime adviser to former President Obama, said in a Friday episode of the podcast. “Like I don’t know what else to call it, a crock of s‑‑‑.”
“They can’t even explain the allegation. It makes no sense,” he continued. “This is the most easily debunked thing in the world.”
Last week, Gabbard released a report claiming that the Obama administration manipulated intelligence to create a false narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
Gabbard then doubled down on the accusation and unsealed a formerly classified House Intelligence Committee report Wednesday that cast doubts on the Eurasian country’s interest in the 2016 election and his desire to aid President Trump.
She called the Obama administration’s reported actions “the most egregious weaponization and politicization of intelligence in American history.”
Several intelligence reviews have concluded that Russia sought to influence the contest and that President Vladimir Putin favored Trump in the election.
Gabbard, at a White House press briefing Wednesday, claimed that the evidence pointed to Obama as the main instigator of the efforts and said she was looking into possible criminal implications.
Trump backed Gabbard, calling the intelligence assessment “irrefutable proof that Obama was seditious.”
“I guess the crime is the creating a false narrative,” co-host Jon Favreau, former Obama speechwriter, said on the Friday episode. “I didn’t think a false narrative could be a coup.”
The podcast hosts join fellow Democrats in criticizing Gabbard, particularly as fervor grows surrounding the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which Democrats — and even some Republicans — have called to be released.
“It seems as though the Trump administration is willing to declassify anything and everything except the Epstein files,” Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.
How Tulsi Gabbard is trying to rewrite the history of the 2016 election
Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN
Sat, July 26, 2025
LONG READ
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on Wednesday. - Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
The director of national intelligence told Americans this week that what everyone has known about the 2016 election is backwards.
The US intelligence community; bipartisan Senate review; the Mueller report; the Durham report — years of investigations concluded or did not dispute the idea that
In Gabbard’s telling, the idea that Russia meddled and that it favored Trump is a narrative spun out of a conspiracy hatched by then-President Barack Obama to undermine Trump from the get-go. Trump clearly approves of Gabbard’s version, although there’s no evidence to support her claims.
Both Trump and Gabbard said Obama could be guilty of treason, which they did not mention is a crime punishable by death. Both Trump and Gabbard left it to Attorney General Pam Bondi to figure out the legal ramifications.
Obama, obviously, disputed the claims, which go against the documented fact pattern, and issued a rare statement condemning Gabbard’s spectacular claims.
I went to CNN’s Jeremy Herb to better understand what the facts say and how Gabbard is trying to undermine them. Our conversation, conducted by email, is below.
What does Gabbard say happened in 2016?
WOLF: Tulsi Gabbard and Donald Trump appear to be trying to flip the script on the history of the 2016 election. What is the broad outline of the allegation?
HERB: Trump, Gabbard and their conservative allies allege that after the 2016 election, President Barack Obama ordered US intelligence agencies to compile an assessment of Russian election interference in order to undermine Trump’s legitimacy before he took office. Gabbard accuses the Obama administration of “manufacturing” the intelligence in the January 2017 report, which contained the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered and sought to help Trump win. Both she and Trump have suggested Obama and his team were “treasonous.”
What does the evidence suggest actually happened in 2016?
WOLF: What is the broad outline of what we actually know happened in 2016?
HERB: The assessment released by the intelligence community after the 2016 election documented Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.
The unclassified version of the report was released in January 2017, detailing both a social media influence campaign and cyber operations like the hacking and strategic release of Democrats’ emails by Wikileaks. The assessment made several judgments, including:
► that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign to undermine faith in the democratic process, denigrate Hillary Clinton and harm her electability and potential presidency,
► that Putin and the Russian government developed a clear preference for Trump,
► that Putin and the Russian government aspired to help Trump’s election chances.
It’s the third assessment — which was made with high confidence by the FBI and CIA and medium confidence by the NSA — that’s been the source of criticism from Trump’s allies for years.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on Wednesday. - Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
The director of national intelligence told Americans this week that what everyone has known about the 2016 election is backwards.
The US intelligence community; bipartisan Senate review; the Mueller report; the Durham report — years of investigations concluded or did not dispute the idea that
In Gabbard’s telling, the idea that Russia meddled and that it favored Trump is a narrative spun out of a conspiracy hatched by then-President Barack Obama to undermine Trump from the get-go. Trump clearly approves of Gabbard’s version, although there’s no evidence to support her claims.
Both Trump and Gabbard said Obama could be guilty of treason, which they did not mention is a crime punishable by death. Both Trump and Gabbard left it to Attorney General Pam Bondi to figure out the legal ramifications.
Obama, obviously, disputed the claims, which go against the documented fact pattern, and issued a rare statement condemning Gabbard’s spectacular claims.
I went to CNN’s Jeremy Herb to better understand what the facts say and how Gabbard is trying to undermine them. Our conversation, conducted by email, is below.
What does Gabbard say happened in 2016?
WOLF: Tulsi Gabbard and Donald Trump appear to be trying to flip the script on the history of the 2016 election. What is the broad outline of the allegation?
HERB: Trump, Gabbard and their conservative allies allege that after the 2016 election, President Barack Obama ordered US intelligence agencies to compile an assessment of Russian election interference in order to undermine Trump’s legitimacy before he took office. Gabbard accuses the Obama administration of “manufacturing” the intelligence in the January 2017 report, which contained the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered and sought to help Trump win. Both she and Trump have suggested Obama and his team were “treasonous.”
What does the evidence suggest actually happened in 2016?
WOLF: What is the broad outline of what we actually know happened in 2016?
HERB: The assessment released by the intelligence community after the 2016 election documented Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.
The unclassified version of the report was released in January 2017, detailing both a social media influence campaign and cyber operations like the hacking and strategic release of Democrats’ emails by Wikileaks. The assessment made several judgments, including:
► that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign to undermine faith in the democratic process, denigrate Hillary Clinton and harm her electability and potential presidency,
► that Putin and the Russian government developed a clear preference for Trump,
► that Putin and the Russian government aspired to help Trump’s election chances.
It’s the third assessment — which was made with high confidence by the FBI and CIA and medium confidence by the NSA — that’s been the source of criticism from Trump’s allies for years.
Why don’t Gabbard’s claims make sense?
WOLF: Is there any evidence to contradict what Trump and Gabbard are alleging?
HERB: There’s plenty, including even in the documents that Gabbard has released so far.
Gabbard has declassified two sets of documents. She claimed the first set, released last week, was evidence that the intelligence community found before the Obama-ordered assessment that Russia did not hack election infrastructure to alter the election outcome. But that isn’t what the intelligence community concluded in the assessment in the first place: Intelligence officials alleged that Russia carried out an influence and hacking campaign to influence voters — they never claimed Russia changed vote tallies. Our sources who previously scrutinized the assessment said Gabbard was conflating two things to try to make a political point; one called it “wildly misleading.”
The newest set of documents, released Wednesday, is a previously classified Republican congressional report from 2017 challenging one of the conclusions from the intelligence community assessment: that Putin aspired to help Trump in 2016. It alleges that the assessment made leaps of logic based on thin sourcing and failed to weigh contradictory evidence.
But disputing the way raw intelligence was analyzed is not the same thing as alleging the intelligence community “manufactured” intelligence — and CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s own review of the intelligence assessment doesn’t support Gabbard’s allegation, either.
There are other holes in Gabbard’s narrative.
She said that a draft of the December 8, 2016, president’s daily brief was shelved after it stated that Russian actors “did not impact recent US election results” by conducting cyber attacks on election infrastructure.
The next day, Gabbard alleged, Obama and his team launched the effort for a new assessment to claim the “election was ‘hacked,’” pointing to a high-level meeting of Obama officials on December 9.
The problem? According to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Obama instructed then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to prepare a report on Russian election interference on December 6 — two days before the alleged shelving of the presidential brief on election infrastructure.
Where did the report Gabbard released come from?
WOLF: Who wrote this 2017 House intelligence committee report Gabbard has made public? Why wasn’t it released before?
HERB: Trump and his allies in Congress have wanted to release the House Intelligence Committee report for years.
It was drafted by Republicans during the first Trump administration when the panel was chaired by former Rep. Devin Nunes, now CEO of Trump’s social media company. Kash Patel, now Trump’s FBI director, was a top committee aide. The intelligence the committee scrutinized was so sensitive that the CIA only allowed staffers and lawmakers to view it and work on their report at CIA headquarters. The committee brought in a safe to lock up its material, which was kept in a CIA vault; it became known as a “turducken,” or a safe within a safe.
Before the 2020 election, Trump’s allies pushed Ratcliffe, who was director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, to declassify and release the report. But he declined to do so amid strenuous pushback by CIA and NSA officials because of the sensitive information contained in it.
Democrats and former intelligence officials warned us that even with the redactions contained in Wednesday’s release, there was still information contained in the report that could risk exposing sources and methods to the Russians.
The raw intelligence contained in this classified House report is part of what prompted the intelligence community to grow so concerned when a binder full of documents related to the FBI’s Russia investigation went missing at the end of the first Trump administration.
What is the universe of reports on meddling in the 2016 election?
WOLF: There have been many reports that support the accepted narrative that Russia meddled to help Trump in 2016. Which are the most important?
HERB: The Senate Intelligence Committee also spent several years investigating Russian election interference, and that panel — on a bipartisan basis — came to the opposite conclusion as House Republicans on the intelligence assessment.
The Senate panel found that the judgments made by the intelligence assessment were well-supported and did not have any “significant analytic tradecraft issues.”
“The Committee found that the ICA presents information from public Russian leadership commentary, Russian state media reports, and specific intelligence reporting to support the assessment that Putin and the Russian Government demonstrated a preference for candidate Trump,” the 2020 Senate report stated.
It’s important to note that the bipartisan report came from a Republican-led committee, chaired through most of the investigation by then-Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina. When the report was released, the panel was led by Marco Rubio — now Trump’s secretary of state.
The intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference has also been a topic for the Justice Department’s inspector general, as well as special counsels Robert Mueller and John Durham.
Durham was appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr in Trump’s first term to investigate potential wrongdoing, including anti-Trump bias, during the FBI’s early investigation into Russia and the Trump campaign. He also probed whether there was any wrongdoing by the FBI and intelligence community during the 2016 post-election period but never accused any US officials of any crimes related to the 2017 intelligence assessment.
Trump has a track record of ordering investigations that don’t deliver
WOLF: The president has promised investigations in the past that have failed to uncover massive anti-Trump conspiracies. His first-term inquiry into election fraud found none. Durham’s sprawling probe fell far short of Trump’s sky-high expectations. Is that what will happen here?
HERB: On Wednesday evening, Bondi announced a strike force that would be dedicated to investigating the documents Gabbard had released and her allegations that the Obama administration “manufactured” evidence about Russia’s election interference.
That followed reports from CNN and others earlier this month that the FBI was investigating former Obama-era CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey following a referral from Ratcliffe in his review of the intelligence community assessment.
Will those investigations lead to breaking new ground and criminal charges? It’s impossible to say, of course. But as I noted above, Durham was appointed by the Trump Justice Department and conducted a four-year investigation into all topics related to the origins of the Russia investigation, which included questioning Brennan in 2020. (Brennan, who denies wrongdoing, was never charged.)
And despite Gabbard’s claims, there’s nothing in the documents she released that appears to fundamentally change what we knew about the assessment the intelligence community created in 2017 or the conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
And then there’s the Steele dossier
WOLF: What about the dossier? Was that part of this intelligence assessment and the latest allegations?
HERB: A summary of the infamous dossier from British intelligence officer Christopher Steele was included as an annex to the January 2017 intelligence community assessment. The inclusion of the dossier in the assessment — and the news first broken by CNN of the dossier’s existence soon thereafter — is part of why Trump and his allies are so critical of the intelligence community’s assessment in the first place.
The dossier was paid for by the Clinton campaign and included many wild and salacious allegations involving Trump and his campaign that were ultimately discredited. The FBI also erred in using the dossier to wrongly obtain two FISA surveillance warrants on a former Trump campaign adviser.
But reviews of the intelligence community’s assessment have shown that the dossier was not behind the analysis in the assessment, as Gabbard has tried to claim over the past week.
The Senate Intelligence investigation interviewed the analysts who prepared the report. There was a debate between the FBI and CIA over whether the dossier should have been included in the assessment — it was left out at the insistence of CIA officials.
“All individuals the Committee interviewed stated that the Steele material did not in any way inform the analysis in the ICA — including the key judgments — because it was unverified information and had not been disseminated as serialized intelligence reporting,” the Senate report states.
What does the evidence say about Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia?
WOLF: Trump has repeated the term “Russia hoax” so much that it is hardwired in people’s brains. But there were many documented ties between Russians and Trump’s campaign in the Mueller report. Is there political risk to Trump relitigating the 2016 election again?
HERB: Trump and his allies have undertaken a yearslong campaign to discredit all attempts to tie Russian interference to Trump, including the intelligence community assessment, the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation and the Mueller investigation.
Trump’s allies helped unearth numerous missteps in the investigations, from FBI’s errors relying on the dossier to obtain FISA warrants to the anti-Trump text messages exchanged between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
But Trump’s repeated claims that the whole 2016 investigation was a hoax ignore the fact that numerous investigations effectively documented that Russia did in fact interfere. The Mueller probe did not establish a criminal conspiracy between the Russians and the Trump campaign, but the special counsel did document dozens of Trump-Russia contacts during the campaign, despite Trump repeatedly claiming falsely that no contacts existed. Most notably, the contacts included Donald Trump Jr.’s Trump Tower meeting where he was offered, and welcomed, “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
The Senate Intelligence Committee investigation, released in 2020, went even further than Mueller to detail contacts between Russian government agents and the Trump campaign.
But like Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, the president’s focus on Russian election interference pushes aside any information contrary to his narrative. He’s cheered on Gabbard — whose standing in the Trump administration had been in question following the Iran strikes — as she’s launched the latest attacks to back up Trump’s claim of a Russian hoax.
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