Move over, Watergate. The worst political scandal in U.S. presidential history just broke open.
On Friday, United States Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified more than 100 documents related to what she called a “treasonous conspiracy” by former president Barack Obama and some leading officials. They smeared Donald Trump with accusations of Russian collusion and election interference without basis.
A recently declassified September 12, 2016, memo stated there was no credible evidence of foreign actors conducting widespread cyberattacks on U.S. election systems. On Dec. 7, 2016, talking points prepared for then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said, “foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the U.S. presidential election outcome.”
Russia couldn’t do it, didn’t do it, but, like bad journalists, Obama officials didn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. After Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, former U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, manipulated intelligence to create a narrative of Russian interference.
Obama held an oval office meeting on Jan. 5, 2017, with the above-mentioned people, plus Vice-President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Sally Yates of the Justice Department to outline a strategy. The decision was made to limit what Trump was told about the Trump-Russia “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation. They talked about how to target incoming national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and how to use Crossfire Hurricane against the new president. The accusations fueled secret warrants to spy on Trump.
The next day, Comey headed to Trump Tower to brief the president-elect on a dossier compiled by counterintelligence specialist Christopher Steele, the former head of the Russia desk for British intelligence (MI6). The report relied heavily on anonymous sources, written for private investigative firm Fusion GPS. It was paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
The dossier was leaked to the media, putting the Trump administration under siege before he had even taken office. The cloud hung over him until a report by special counsel Robert Mueller admitted in March of 2019 that there was no proof of Russian collusion.
What the newly-released documents reveal is just how knowingly and intentionally the Obama administration and intelligence bosses misled the American public.
July 2025 was a bad month for Brennan even before the recent disclosures. On July 2, CIA Director John Ratcliffe released a report on the origins of the Intelligence Community Assessment that concluded Russia had interfered in the 2016 election. It turns out Brennan misled the House of Representatives in 2023 when he claimed the “CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele Dossier in the Intelligence Community Assessment.”
According to Ratcliffe, Brennan disregarded warnings from multiple high-ranking officials that the partisan Steele Dossier should not be included in the intelligence assessment. But Brennan disagreed, “My bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.”
Such documents remained hidden for years because the FBI made them invisible, as reported by The Federalist. The FBI’s electronic case management system, Sentinel, allows agents to hide the existence of relevant investigative reports from other authorized users of the federal database.
The intentional burial of such documents from prying eyes were a severe no-no, given their relevance to investigations by the Department of Justice, the FBI, and others on Trump’s activities, not to mention the availability of evidence to defend himself amidst impeachment hearings.
Now that the door of disclosure has cracked open, more information may soon follow, according to Gabbard.
“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,” Gabbard told Fox News on Sunday.
On July 21, Gabbard turned over the records to the Department of Justice in hopes they will pursue charges of criminal conspiracy against those involved. Statutes of limitations do not apply in such cases.
“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,” Gabbard said on Sunday.
A great feature of Western democratic nations is that no one is above the law–including those in government. These disclosures were an important step in righting the record, and the criminal referral is entirely appropriate. Time will tell whether the prosecutions take place or find success.
