Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard took to social media on Wednesday with a series of bizarre infographics as she doubles down on explosive claims about the 2016 election.
President Donald Trump and his team have turned to unsubstantiated conspiracies about Barack Obama when pressed with ongoing questions about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
On Wednesday, Gabbard announced that she had declassified the House Intelligence Committee staff report on the Intelligence Community Assessment of the 2016 election at Trump’s direction.
She then proceeded to post a new series of highly-produced graphics highlighting what the Trump administration claimed were Obama-era lies about the election.
It’s the latest in a series of information dumps Gabbard has made while arguing Obama officials manufactured claims that Russia worked to influence the election.
However, as Gabbard continues to release documents, she has strategically conflated two separate Russian activities in her messaging. The documents determine Russia did not attack election infrastructure or hack the election, but the intelligence community did find that Russia tried to influence the ballot.
While Gabbard claimed the report she released on Wednesday “exposes how the Obama Administration manufactured the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that they knew was false” and accused officials of “promoting the LIE that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government helped President Trump win the 2016 election,” the report itself directly states Russia worked to undermine the election. What was less conclusive in that specific report was Russia’s preferred candidate.
“The key judgments found to be credible include: 1) President Putin ordered conventional and cyber influence operations, notably by leaking politically sensitive emails obtained from computer intrusions; 2) Putin’s principal motivations in these operations were to undermine faith in the US democratic process and to weaken what the Russians considered to be an inevitable Clinton presidency,” the declassified report reads.
The report was based on an investigation conducted by former Republican House Intel Chair Devin Nunes, who now serves as the CEO of Trump Media.
While the House report agreed that Russia did interfere, the GOP report disputed the 2017 intelligence assessment that Putin had a “clear preference” for Trump and “aspired to help his chances” in 2016.
It accuses the former CIA Director John Brennan of ordering the release of reports containing previously collected but unpublished intelligence, including info of questionable origins, which became the foundation for the intelligence assessment that Putin preferred Trump.
As Gabbard claimed publicly in a Fox News interview that an intelligence report said Russia did not attempt to affect the outcome of the election, she conveniently left out details of the document she has cited.
The document she points to as evidence Obama officials promoted lies, a Presidential Daily Briefing, specifically addressed one type of influence and stated Russia did not impact the election results “by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure.”
Gabbard, who has long been accused by critics of being a Putin apologist for repeating Russian propaganda to the point where she has been praised on Russian state TV before being tapped as Trump’s intel chief, has argued the document she has released details “a treasonous conspiracy” by members of the Obama White House.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously refuted Gabbard’s allegations.
Rubio, as then-acting chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, led the investigation, which resulted in a bipartisan Russia report that found not only did Russia engage in an effort to influence the 2016 election, but that Putin ordered the hack and leak of information damaging to Hillary Clinton and helped the Trump campaign.
While the Gabbard information drop and accusations are loaded with holes, MAGA Republicans are seizing on her assessment and are accusing Obama of treason. Her accusations have also been promoted by members of the Trump White House.
On Tuesday, Trump pointed directly to her allegations and attacks on Obama officials in response to questions about Epstein in the Oval Office.
Obama’s office made a rare move on Tuesday and responded to the accusations coming directly from the White House.
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”
