By Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard dropped a bombshell report on Friday in which she claims that Barack Obama and his natoinal security team “manufactured and politicized intelligence” after President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory. They hoped to undermine the incoming president and hinder his administration.
The files include internal emails, intelligence drafts, and agency feedback from the weeks before the 2016 election. While the public narrative emphasized Russian cyber threats, the underlying assessments reveal a more cautious posture. Officials across agencies, including the FBI, CIA, and Department of Homeland Security, repeatedly noted the absence of evidence that Russia aimed to directly manipulate vote counts or possessed the capability to do so undetected.
One internal memo, circulated among high-level intelligence officers in early September 2016, acknowledged “no indication” of Russian intent to sabotage computer-enabled voting systems. Another document recorded the FBI urging the intelligence community to soften language suggesting Russia was targeting the election itself, warning that such a conclusion was not supported by available evidence.
The Daily Caller writes that a DNI whistleblower said they “could not concur in good conscience based on the information available” that there was “a decisive Russian preference for then-candidate Donald Trump,” according to the memo.
“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 statement continued.
“Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup with the objective of trying to usurp the President from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people,” Gabbard said. “Their egregious abuse of power and blatant rejection of our Constitution threatens the very foundation and integrity of our democratic republic.”
“No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again,” Gabbard continued. “The American people’s faith and trust in our democratic republic and therefore the future of our nation depends on it. As such, I am providing all documents to the Department of Justice to deliver the accountability that President Trump, his family, and the American people deserve.”
Professor Margot Cleveland broke down the findings on social media:
🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: HUGE releases by @DNIGabbard 1/
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) July 18, 2025
Gabbard, who was appointed DNI earlier this year, said the declassification was necessary to ensure transparency and restore public trust. “These documents show intelligence was politicized to justify years of investigations, media narratives, and political attacks,” she said in a statement. “This was an abuse of the public trust.”
The files confirm that while Russia had conducted cyber operations against political party networks—most notably the DNC and DCCC—intelligence agencies were divided on how to attribute the subsequent leaks of those materials. The NSA and FBI, in particular, expressed “low confidence” in assigning the leaks to Russian actors.
Whether additional records will be declassified remains unclear. But the release offers fresh insight into how intelligence assessments were manipulated by Barack Obama and his cronies to undermine Trump’s first term. Earlier in the year, President Trump stripped security clearances from prominent Obama and Biden era officials.
[Read More: Democrats Panicking Over Gerrymandering Plan]
