It should be one of the biggest scandals of all time. A new wave of declassified documents is reigniting fierce debate over the 2016 presidential election, casting fresh doubt on the official narrative of Russian interference and prompting sharp pushback from former Obama administration officials who are trying to cover their tracks, writes The Daily Caller. At the center of the storm is Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has led the release of records calling into question the conclusions of a key 2017 intelligence report.
Gabbard, who has labeled the effort to tie President Donald Trump to Russia a “years-long coup and treasonous conspiracy against the American public,” announced that she has issued a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. The documents her office released in recent days suggest that the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA)—ordered by President Barack Obama and prepared by then-CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper—was based on “spun or manufactured intelligence,” according to the source material.
Former Obama aides are doing everything possible to keep the scandal under wraps, according to NBC. “The battle now is to play this even to make sure that thoughts don’t start to creep into more mainstream” audiences, one former official said, expressing concern that the disclosures could alter public perception. The official added that the administration is depending on “mainstream Republicans” to follow the lead of editorial boards and congressional figures who view the allegations as “beyond the pale.”
One of the leaders of the Obama ‘coup,’ John Brennan, who is facing a criminal investigation, has taken to cable television to push the cover-up.
Perfect snapshot of modern “news”: a former White House flack masquerading as an anchor, interviewing an ex-CIA chief-turned-paid-MSNBC analyst, masquerading as a guest — with no journalists in the picture. https://t.co/DDzbzckyxv
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) July 26, 2025
Other newly public documents, declassified on July 18, show that intelligence analysts concluded Russia lacked the capability to manipulate U.S. voting machines—a finding reportedly omitted from Trump’s briefings. According to sources, Obama gathered his national security team in the Situation Room on December 9, 2016, and tasked them with substantiating Russian election interference. A planned Presidential Daily Brief the day prior, which was expected to highlight Russia’s limited cyber capabilities, was reportedly scrapped after the FBI pulled its support.
In a July 22 statement, Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush categorically rejected the allegations: “These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction. Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.”
President Trump, addressing reporters from the Oval Office on Thursday, described the actions detailed in the documents as “treason,” adding, “And we have all of the documents. And from what I — Tulsi told me, she’s got thousands of additional documents coming.”
Despite the gravity of the accusations, the story has yet to command widespread media coverage from mainstream outlets.
Did you not hear that DNI Gabbard exposed a story with historic implications yesterday? Why the media black out? Why are you afraid to tell the truth to the American people?
Ignoring the culpability of Obama and your deep state sources will not change… pic.twitter.com/Y1hbNDJcTb
— Office of the DNI (@ODNIgov) July 24, 2025
On July 24, leading outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post—joint winners of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Russian interference—did not feature the new declassifications prominently. The Pulitzer Prize Board, meanwhile, remains the target of an ongoing libel lawsuit filed by Trump challenging the integrity of the award.
[Read More: DC Bureaucrats Furious About Having To Live In America]
Which they seeded Years ago
Here we go again – calling blatant criminal acts ‘scandals’.
As to the lame stream media – among his other ‘allies’ – they all have invested so much political capital in creating his image and polishing it over decades they have painted themselves into a corner and believe they have no choice but to continue. Never mind that if he goes down a lot of them will a well.
WOW !!! DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard, now sitting in the very position once held by John Brennan, a card carrying Communist, is now trying to spin a story that the very documents that Gabbard has de-classified so they can be presented to the public, are lies. How does that work ? These are documents that were hidden away via classifying them in the first place probably by Brennan. Brennan, Comey and Clapper are all hitting the talk show circuit denying, denying and denying that what Gabbard has exposed is true ? Believe it or not this is what tens of millions of decent Americans have been waiting for for 9 years now. And if Kamala Whorris would have been elected this would still be hidden. Trump was elected to make sure all of this past 9 yers of demonRAT hell is going to be brought front & center like it must be. Obama has colluded with many in the demonRAT enterprise to commit the largest, most destructive political crimes in American history. WE MUST NOT LET THIS OPPORTUNITY TO FIX AMERICA SLIP THROUGH OUR FINGERS. Every rock must be overturned to see what else is there to be exposed so true justice for the American people is achieved.