() President Donald Trump’s administration has released declassified emails that it claims reveal a “conspiracy” to cast doubt on the 2016 election results.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is alleging that former President Barack Obama and members of his national security cabinet manufactured intelligence regarding Trump’s 2016 victory.
The report comes as the Trump administration is under heavy scrutiny for its failure to release the Epstein files as promised, with Trump and some of his key supporters trading barbs over their release.
In the Friday report, Gabbard cited assessments from the intelligence community prior to the 2016 general election that Russia was “probably not trying … to influence the election by using cyber means” and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s December 2016 remarks stating that cyberattacks on election infrastructure were not used to alter the outcome.
Gabbard used declassified emails to suggest that a report written later contradicted earlier intelligence assessments, saying it relied on information that wasn’t credible.
However, the two reports cited appear to be focused on different issues regarding foreign interference.
The earlier September report focused on election infrastructure, concluding that Russia did not have and would likely not obtain methods to hack U.S. election systems to change, while the later January report focused on Russia’s use of influence campaigns and attempted to undermine democracy.
A bipartisan U.S. Senate investigation and a CIA review stood by the assessment that Russia did interfere the 2016 election, with now Secretary of State Marco Rubio signing off on the Senate review.
Some Republicans have backed Gabbard’s claims.
“There’s so much corruption coming out. This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.
Meanwhile, some Democrats have stood by the bipartisan conclusions regarding Russia.
“The Senate Intel Committee unanimously concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. If there had been some Obama conspiracy, we would have found it. This latest lie is another sad, dangerous example of Tulsi Gabbard trying to rewrite history and erode trust in the IC,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
This is not the first time Trump has attacked the intelligence assessments about Russia’s involvement and use of influence and disinformation campaigns to try to sway the U.S. election.
Neither Obama nor members of his national security team have commented on the report.
