Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has released new documents and memos claiming to show evidence of wrongdoing by former President Barack Obama’s administration.
She says Obama officials engaged in what she calls a “treasonous conspiracy” and “coup” attempt in 2016. Gabbard alleges that the Obama administration changed intelligence reports about Russian interference in the 2016 election to hurt Donald Trump politically.
The timing of these document releases comes as President Trump faces criticism over his decision not to release complete Jeffrey Epstein files, despite previous promises to expose Epstein’s secrets. Gabbard has recommended criminal charges against Obama and other former officials based on her claims. She argues that the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia tried to help Trump win the 2016 election was false and part of a plan to destroy Trump. However, Gabbard’s credibility has been questioned due to her dramatic political transformation.
However, experts say Gabbard’s evidence does not support her claims that Obama officials found proof of a “treasonous conspiracy.” The documents she has released bring some new information to light about U.S. intelligence operations, but they do not change the well-established findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Trump.
What the documents actually show
Last Friday, Gabbard released a memo, emails, and intelligence documents that she claimed proved Russia did not try to interfere in the 2016 election. But CNN pointed out a major problem with her argument. She cited an intelligence document that said Russia “did not attempt to affect the outcome of the election.” However, that document was only talking about one specific type of interference. It said Russia had not impacted election results “by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure.”
The document was referring to direct attacks on voting systems, not other forms of interference like spreading false information online or leaking stolen emails. The Obama administration never claimed that Russia had manipulated actual votes that were cast. Gabbard used this narrow statement to suggest that Russia did not interfere at all, which misrepresents what the document actually said.
On Wednesday, Gabbard announced another document release. This included a report from Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee from 2020 about the 2017 intelligence community assessment of Russian interference. Democratic lawmakers on the committee rejected this Republican report at the time and played no role in creating it. Even this partisan Republican report found most of the 2017 intelligence assessment to be sound. It only questioned some of the sources used to conclude that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help Trump.
A more complete picture from other investigations shows different results. In 2020, a bipartisan Senate investigation spent three years looking at Russian interference. This investigation involved more than 200 witnesses and reviewed more than a million documents. The committee was led by Marco Rubio, who is now Trump’s secretary of state. Every member of the committee, both Republicans and Democrats, agreed with the findings. They concluded that Russia had spread false information online and leaked stolen Democratic Party emails to hurt Clinton and help Trump.
Multiple other investigations have also looked into these claims over the years. The Justice Department released a report in 2019, special counsel Robert Mueller published his findings in 2019, and special counsel John Durham issued a report in 2023. If there had been a conspiracy by Obama officials to change intelligence assessments and target Trump, these investigations would have found evidence of it. Ironically, there have been recent reports of intelligence changes under Gabbard’s own leadership to protect Trump. None of them found proof of the kind of conspiracy Gabbard is now claiming exists.
Published: Jul 25, 2025 12:26 pm