Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday declassified a series of documents that she claims reveal a covert effort, orchestrated by the Obama administration, to delegitimize President Donald Trump through the narrative of Trump-Russia collusion, Fox News reported.
“The implications of this are frankly nothing short of historic,” Gabbard said during an appearance on Sunday Morning Futures. “Over 100 documents that we released on Friday really detail and provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President [Barack] Obama just weeks before he was due to leave office after President Trump had already gotten elected. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an issue that is so serious it should concern every single American because it has to do with the integrity of our democratic republic,” she added.
According to the materials released, there was no indication prior to the 2016 election that Russia intended to interfere with the voting process. Nevertheless, key members of the intelligence community later pursued a narrative accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of meddling to benefit Trump’s candidacy.
Gabbard claimed that this shift contradicted previous intelligence evaluations. “Creating this piece of manufactured intelligence that claims that Russia had helped Donald Trump get elected contradicted every other assessment that had been made previously in the months leading up to the election that said exactly the opposite, that Russia had neither the intent nor the capability to try to ‘hack the United States election,’” she said. “So the effect of what President Obama and his senior national security team did was subvert the will of the American people, undermining our democratic republic and enacting what would be essentially a years-long coup against President Trump, who was duly elected by the American people.”
Among those implicated in the newly released documents are former top intelligence officials, including ex-DNI James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, ex-FBI Director James Comey, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and Obama himself. Gabbard indicated she plans to refer the material to the FBI and Department of Justice in hopes that the DOJ will pursue criminal charges against those responsible.
Additional revelations came in late May, when FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino stated that his team had discovered significant amounts of classified information related to the Trump-Russia probe, which he said had been concealed during Comey’s leadership at the bureau.
Gabbard suggested more developments could soon emerge. “We have whistleblowers, actually, coming forward now after we released these documents because there are so many people who were around, who were working within the intelligence community at this time who were so disgusted by what happened.”