Did Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump? Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called for Barack Obama and former senior US national security officials to be prosecuted after she accused them of a “treasonous conspiracy in 2016” intended to show that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election win was due to Russian interference.
Gabbard said the 114 pages of heavily redacted emails reveal that former President Barack Obama’s national security Cabinet faked and manipulated intelligence behind the assessment that Russia wanted Trump to win the election.
On July 18, Gabbard released a statement titled 'New evidence of obama administration conspiracy to subvert president trump’s 2016 victory and presidency.'
She claimed to have revealed “overwhelming evidence that demonstrates how, after President Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, President Obama and his national security cabinet members manufactured and politicised intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump.”
Gabbard alleged that Obama officials leaked false statements to media outlets, including The Washington Post, claiming, “Russia has attempted through cyber means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election.”
DNI Tulsi Gabbard said in a press release, “The information we are releasing today clearly 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,” she added.
The release shared by Gabbard included copies of two versions of an intelligence community assessment — a draft dated Sept. 12, 2016, saying that “foreign adversaries do not have and will probably not obtain” the ability to hack election systems.
Another dated Jan. 5, 2017 concluded that “Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in the summer of 2016 aimed at the US presidential election.”
But Gabbard, in her conclusion around the documents, appears to be conflating separate assessments. The January report never concluded that Russia tried to hack election infrastructure — instead finding that Russia tried to undermine faith in democracy, attack Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and show a preference for Trump, Bloomberg reported.
She called for an investigation and prosecution of those involved, “no matter how powerful,” and said on X that the documents would be turned over to the Department of Justice.
Gabbard’s claim stands in contrast to the findings of a bipartisan Senate investigation that ended in 2020 and the conclusion of a Central Intelligence Agency review released earlier this month, Bloomberg reported.
That review faulted some aspects of a 2017 assessment on Russian interference but stood by the conclusion that Moscow wanted Trump to win in 2016.