Gabbard releases new documents on 2016 election

The Hill

4 days ago

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday released a previously classified House report, her second such disclosure after accusing the intelligence community of a 'treasonous conspiracy' in its review of foreign influence in the 2016 election.
The report – a 2020 product from the House Intelligence Committee – casts doubts on Russian President Vladimir Putin's interest in the 2016 election and his desire to aid President Trump in the contest.
Its release comes as President Trump has sought to use Gabbard's Friday disclosure to pin blame on former President Obama, accusing him of trying 'to rig the election.'
Numerous intelligence reviews have concluded that Russia aimed to influence the 2016 election and that Putin favored Trump.
The House intelligence report released on Wednesday was authored when Republicans controlled the lower chamber. While the newly released information does not undercut the assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, it sheds light on the Obama administration's handling of Russia's activity at the time.
The House report said the CIA 'did not adhere to the tenets' of analytical standards and said the conclusion Putin took actions to benefit Trump was based on 'one scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports.'
Gabbard on Wednesday portrayed the report as a bombshell, saying it exposed 'the most egregious weaponization and politicization of intelligence in American history.'
Gabbard alleged Obama administration officials 'conspired to subvert the will of the American people, working with their partners in the media to promote the lie, in order to undermine the legitimacy of President Trump, essentially enacting a years-long coup against him.'
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, slammed Gabbard for releasing the report, noting that a bipartisan Senate report backed the CIA's conclusions about Russia's aims.
'It seems as though the Trump administration is willing to declassify anything and everything except the Epstein files,' Warner said in a statement.
'Let's be clear: the bipartisan, unanimous finding of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after years of painstaking investigation, more than 200 witness interviews, and millions of documents, was that Russia launched a large-scale influence campaign in the 2016 election in order to help then-candidate Donald Trump,' he added.
'Nothing in this partisan, previously scuttled document changes that. Releasing this so-called report is just another reckless act by a Director of National Intelligence so desperate to please Donald Trump that she is willing to risk classified sources, betray our allies, and politicize the very intelligence she has been entrusted to protect.'
Gabbard's recent releases around Russian interference in the 2016 election have earned her rave reviews from Trump, who has for years claimed there was a plot by his political enemies to sabotage his 2016 campaign.
'She's like hotter than everybody. She's the hottest one in the room right now,' Trump said of Gabbard during a Tuesday night reception with House Republicans.
On Friday, Gabbard released a memo seeking to undercut the findings that Putin tried to swing the election for Trump, but in doing so released documents on claims that are not in dispute.
The memo, as well as another 114 pages of related documents, primarily rested on details discussing whether there was a Russian effort to directly manipulate the actual vote count.
Obama officials at the time, as well as in later intelligence reports, said that the adversary never succeeded in changing any votes.
Despite the report itself largely referencing intelligence about efforts to probe U.S. voting systems, Gabbard argued on social media it 'shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government.'
'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.'