Obama pushed false Russia election meddling claims, says Gabbard
By: Robby Soave (The Hill)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Big news breaking over the weekend: In the final days of his presidency, Barack Obama pushed intelligence officials to exaggerate the evidence for Russian malfeasance in the 2016 presidential election and collusion with the Trump campaign.
That's according to current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. She has released documents from that time period that she says prove the existence of a "treasonous" plot to undermine President Trump and persuade the public that there was something illegitimate about his victory in 2016.
Here is Gabbard explaining the details of that plot on Fox News over the weekend: "Over a hundred documents that we released, on Friday, really detail and provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama, just weeks before he was due to leave office after President Trump had already gotten elected. 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 continues: "What we saw occur here, as the documents we released detail, was that we had a sitting president of the United States and his Cabinet and leadership team, quite frankly who were not happy with the fact that President Trump had won the election, that the American people had chosen Donald J. Trump to be the next president and commander-in-chief of the United States. And so they decided that they would do everything possible to try to undermine his ability to do what voters tasked President Trump to do."
Gabbard's key finding is this: In December of 2016, after Trump had won the presidential election, intelligence officials prepared an assessment that found that Russia did not have the capability to affect the outcome of the election — that is, Russia did not hack voting machines or have some power to actually change the result. This assessment, however, was withdrawn, pulled back "based on new guidance."
That was on Dec. 8. The very next day, according to the documents released by Gabbard, top intelligence officials including James Comey and John Brennan and James Clapper all convened at the White House, where President Obama himself directed them to reach stronger conclusions about Russian election meddling. (If you're confused, here's a helpful summary from journalist Matt Taibbi. )
In sum, just before Obama was to receive a briefing that contained no reference to significant Russian interference, the briefing was called off and a high-level meeting of White House security officials was convened, after which Obama himself tasked them with a new assessment that would lean toward a more aggressive conclusion. Although this new effort was to be directed by Clapper's office, the critical job of divining Russia's motives would be given to the CIA and Brennan.
It's suspicious that a Presidential Daily Briefing was postponed to make way for an intelligence community assessment ordered at Obama's request, and fishier yet that the evidence Vladimir Putin intended to help Trump came from a classified annex containing Steele dossier material, but the smoking gun is that these eventual conclusions leaked instantly — not one or two weeks after Obama ordered the assessment but the same day, before any group work could possibly have been done.
Indeed, the most egregious part of all this is that the mainstream media instantly went nuts with Russiagate fervor. That same day, The New York Times reported that "Russian hackers acted to aid Trump in election," citing senior administration officials and intelligence sources. The Washington Post ran with similar sensational claims.
What followed was two years of constant fearmongering in the media over Trump's alleged fealty to Putin. It was insinuated over and over again that Trump's policies toward Russia were directed by Putin, that Putin had him over a barrel — that it was a kickback for influencing the election on his behalf.
Much later, of course, the public learned that Russian efforts to affect the outcome of the 2016 election were not particularly impressive. They did not hack voting machines, and their influence operation on social media amounted to very little. No evidence emerged that the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russian government.
We know all this already. But what Gabbard's latest revelations show is that senior intelligence officials also knew this — and they knew it all the way back in 2016. That was their conclusion: Russian influence was not a very big threat. That was the truth. Unfortunately, the truth wasn't salacious enough for the mainstream media, and it wasn't politically useful as a weapon for outgoing President Obama to use against Trump.
I don't like to lightly throw around the word treason, and without further investigation, I would certainly not use such a term. However, I've been repeatedly informed by liberals and Democrats and members of the media that undermining public confidence in the outcome of a presidential election is a very serious transgression — at least when Trump does it. Will we now be treated to thunderous denunciation of Obama and his coterie of intelligence officials for encouraging the media to gleefully report that something just wasn't adding it up when it came to Trump's 2016 win?
I think I'll be holding my breath on that one.
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Here's what we know after 9 years of hysteria:
1. Russian election meddling was spectacularly incompetent had no effect on the outcome
2. There was no collusion between Trump and Russia.
3. Hillary Clinton manufactured the conspiracy about Trump to distract from her own scandals. The FBI knew in the summer of 2015 it was a dirty trick launched by Clinton.
4. The ICA was politicized and designed to help democrats and hurt Trump
5. There was no basis for a criminal investigation of Trump by Mueller.
John Durham[✘]
After a three-and-a-half-year investigation, Durham indicted three men. One of them, whose misconduct had been uncovered by the DOJ Inspector General's 2019 review of the FBI investigation, pleaded guilty to a charge unrelated to the origins of the FBI investigation and was sentenced to probation. The other two, a Clinton campaign lawyer and a Russian-American analyst, were tried for lying to the FBI and acquitted. In both trials, Durham alleged the defendants had deceived the FBI, rather than alleging the FBI acted improperly toward Trump.
John Durham - Wikipedia
bing co-pilot
Doesn't contradict anything I wrote. Thanks though.
Yes, indeed...
And you know that how?
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2. There was no collusion between Trump and Russia.
3. Hillary Clinton manufactured the conspiracy about Trump to distract from her own scandals. The FBI knew in the summer of 2015 it was a dirty trick launched by Clinton.
bing co-pilot
4. The ICA was politicized and designed to help democrats and hurt Trump
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Critics argue Gabbard’s claims conflate different types of Russian activity and misrepresent standard intelligence processes.
Dissenting views within the intelligence community were common, and assessments often evolve with new information.
The bipartisan Senate report found no evidence of politicization and reaffirmed Russia’s intent to help Trump.
5. There was no basis for a criminal investigation of Trump by Mueller.
bing co-pilot
Yes, there was a legal basis for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to open a criminal investigation into Donald Trump and his associates. Let’s break down the rationale and scope:
⚖️ Legal Authority and Mandate
Mueller was appointed in May 2017 by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to investigate:
Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
Any matters arising directly from the investigation, including obstruction of justice.
🔍 Basis for Investigation
The FBI had already launched a counterintelligence probe (Crossfire Hurricane) in July 2016 after learning that Trump adviser George Papadopoulos had discussed Russian “dirt” on Hillary Clinton with foreign diplomats.
After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, Mueller expanded the investigation to include possible obstruction of justice3.
📘 Mueller Report Findings
Found numerous links between Trump campaign officials and Russian operatives, including Paul Manafort’s contacts with a Russian intelligence officer4.
Determined that Russia’s interference was “sweeping and systematic”, including social media manipulation and hacking Democratic emails4.
Mueller did not establish criminal conspiracy between Trump and Russia, but noted the campaign welcomed Russia’s help2.
On obstruction, Mueller identified ten episodes of potential obstructive conduct by Trump but declined to reach a prosecutorial judgment due to DOJ policy against indicting a sitting president3.
🧾 Post-Investigation Implications
Mueller stated: “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so”.
The report left open the possibility that Congress could pursue accountability through impeachment or other constitutional mechanisms3.
So while Mueller didn’t charge Trump with a crime, the investigation was grounded in credible evidence and produced extensive findings that justified its scope. Want to explore how Mueller’s conclusions compare with Durham’s or how obstruction was handled legally?
including swing states like Illinois
Who wrote this, the Russians? Who's desperate to promote a narrative here? Illinois a swing state.... There is, of course, zero evidence that they had any success.
The Russian campaign, such that it was, gained zero traction. IT's only success was an anti-Trump rally held after the election. By all means, look up how much the russians spent on ads that could presumably help Trump/hurt Hillary during the 2016 election season in actual swing states. It's shockingly small in and of itself and nothing compared to the total amount spent.
le no formal collusion charges were brought, t
But collusion was real!!! Lol.
cy” implies intentional deception with criminal intent—something no investigation has proven. Th
Ask John Brennan, who wrote Obama that Hillary was stirring up the collusion issue to distract from her own problems. Did you miss that?
e FBI had already launched a counterintelligence probe (Crossfire Hurricane) in July 2016 after learning that Trump adviser George Papadopoulos had discussed Russian “dirt” on Hillary Clinton with foreign diplomats.
Yes, exactly. Crossfire Hurricane, as the IG reported, should never have been made a full investigation.
Every one of your bullet points is easily disputed. Even if one decided a couple of them are a close call, which I do not, Trump has been lying about the "Russia hoax" for 7 or 8 years and by now it is dogma among the cultists.
‘Every one of your bullet points is easily disputed.’
So let’s see you do it with [facts…..deleted][✘]
And there's this:
[✘]
LOL! Our current FuckFace-in-Chief apparently needs something else to distract and deflect from the dumpster fire he's lit on the white house lawn. What a bunch of horse shit this seed is. More fucking useless bigoted conservatives finding anything they can to attack the former black President, they can't allow any possible stone to go unturned as they try desperately to dismantle our nation and feed it to their Dear Leader. Nothing Gabbard is revealing changes any of the actual facts. The white house DID NOT claim that Russia hacked election machines or that they had changed the outcome of the election. What they did do was admit that Russia DID attempt to interfere in our election. It's a fucking fact no matter how many times some dumb as rocks bigot screams "Russia Hoax!" like the abject morons they are. And not only did they interfere, here's what the Republican led Senate investigation found:
But no, let's rile up some conservatives with some horse shit about Obama! Yeah! That's the ticket. And what was this supposed " treasonous conspiracy" "directed by President Obama"?!
" intelligence officials prepared an assessment that found that Russia did not have the capability to affect the outcome of the election — that is, Russia did not hack voting machines or have some power to actually change the result. This assessment, however, was withdrawn, pulled back "based on new guidance."
What? That's it? That's the treason? What the fuck? They never claimed Russia hacked the voting machines, why the fuck did they have to release a thing concluding that Russia didn't hack voting machines? Have these Republican morons lost whatever part of their minds they might have still had back in 2016? This is just stupid.
Their unbridled trashing of the norms and standards of our political system will be put on steroids as Trump continues to ethically and mentally fall apart.
This is called projection.
Stay tuned. The cat's out of the bag and things are going to get bleak for the corrupt left-wing crooks
The chickens are coming to roost, and the Trump administration has all the receipts and the power to take action
ODS is a real thing...
Here we go!
This is a bizarre fantasy. They must really want to stop people talking about Epstein.
Well, that’s super because that was not the concern. We never thought Russia was hacking voting machines. That wasn’t the issue. You can interfere in an election without hacking voting machines or changing the result. This “finding” by Gabbard is a straw man.
Statement by the President on Actions in Response to Russian Malicious Cyber Activity and Harassment
“Data theft and disclosure activities” is not the same thing as hacking voting machines or somehow changing the vote count.
Yet 2/3 of Democrats believe it, and some on the board will still claim it.
wtf? Where? That's just total lunacy and the weakest straw man I've ever seen. Please do back up your claim that two thirds of Democrats believe the Russians hacked voting machines in 2016. If you can't we'll all know just how little confidence we should have in your spurious comments.
I've probably done it 50 times on this site over the years. And when I do, many progressives simply ignore it and then pretend ignorance about it when the topic comes up a few months later. Rinse. Repeat.
Here you go, again. Ignore it, again.
Trump publicly called for Russia to hack his political opponents computer. Lets start with that.
We can know he wasnt "joking" because he did something similar two subsequent times , one with Zelensky and once when he asked Putin to find some dirt on Biden for him to use in the 24 election.
That's a lie, what he said is Russia would “find the 30,000 emails that are missing ... I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” The computer you are lying about was in FBI custody for a year.
where do you think trump thought they were going to find them?
trump wasnt "joking", he was trying to collude and its one of the reasons he was investigated
So, a single INTERNET poll makes that claim from 2018. I scoured the news sites, didn't find any left leaning sites claiming Russia hacked the voting machines, was watching the news at the time, any Russia supposed hacking of voting machines was quickly debunked by the left.
Only one internet based YouGOV poll claims 2 out of 3 Democrats believe that horse shit.
Allegations of poll manipulation - YouGOV
No doubt that wasn't the only poll they conducted with a "skewed sample" during 2017 and 2018.
Of course all the other polls were asking about the hacking of Democrat email servers which the Russia DID in fact do. That's what Democrats were concerned with at the time and they were right to be concerned.
So, your attempt at proof falls flat on its face without any verifiable data to confirm it. I don't know of any Democrat at that time claiming Russians hacked the voting machines, that's just stupid. And clearly no left-wing media companies were pushing that story because if they were they likely would have been sued by the voting machine companies just like Fox was for making false claims.
Lol. Such pathetic desperation. The poll was done for the Economist. Imagine being so deep into conspiracies you argue the Economist is skewing results to support Trump.
I don't know of any Democrat at that time claiming Russians hacked the voting machines, that's just stupid
Yet 2/3 of Democrats, including some on this site, profess to believing it.
lol, you called it .,,,, it’s always Groundhog Day here with such topics
you know when Trump spoke it was public knowledge Hillary had ignored a congressional subpoena and wiped her servers of the emails right? The FBI was looking for them. The only people who could have had them would have been people who had hacked them from the illegal servers Clinton set up to avoid oversight before she wiped them.
That's just pure nonsense, especially about those on this site. This was all debunked back in 2018 and was an intentional deflection by Republicans so they could call it a "hoax" when it was anything but as I've pointed out many times. Have I ever claimed Russia hacked voting machines? Of course not because that's moronic. Are there morons in both parties? Of course there are so I'm sure you can find a Democrat who would believe that shit just like I'm sure I can find a Republican who thinks Democrat leaders are really alien lizards. That's the same level of idiocy the claim that Russia hacked voting machines is. Claiming 2/3's of Democrats believe that shit or ever believed that shit is beyond stupid.
was an intentional deflection by Republicans so they could call it a "hoax"
Ah yes. the Economist, Yougov and Republicans were all engaged in a conspiracy to make democratic voters look silly. The fact that you are arguing such categorical nonsense basically proves the gullibility and willingness of democrats to believe batshit crazy conspiracies.
Have I ever claimed Russia hacked voting machines?
I don't know. You are championing a batshit crazy conspiracy right now so anything's possible
Claiming 2/3's of Democrats believe that shit or ever believed that shit is beyond stupid.
I provided data to support it. You've done in response but promote inane conspiracies and throw insults.
You provided an unsupported internet poll that even YouGOV admitted could be a "skewed sample" just like some of their other internet polls.
Everyone with more than half a brain know online polls are historically UNRELIABLE and yet that's the total amount of evidence you have to claim that some 50 million Democrats believe something that NONE of them are talking about or have ever admitted and would be lunacy to believe.
This is an epic strawman. I have to applaud the freshman attempt at deflection, but the facts remain which I posted above about how Russia DID, in fact, meddle in the 2016 election and again in the 2020 election and again in the 2024 election with the intent to aid Donald Trump to win the American Presidency. These are proven facts, not just conjecture or some bullshit claim based on a flawed unreliable internet poll. To continue to intentionally ram your head up Trumps ass so as not to accept the facts is not a valid defense, it just stuffs your ears with Trump shit, but clearly I'm too late to save any conservatives here of that repulsive fate.
Whatever people in a poll believe or don’t believe is immaterial. They haven’t been referred for prosecution. If somebody thinks Russia hacked voting machines and changed the vote count, they didn’t get that from Obama. That’s why I quoted his statement.
Lol. Polls are polls. "unsupported" Get serious. Yougov is one of the highest rated pollsters out there.
en YouGOV admitted could be a "skewed sample"
A skewed sample of Democratic voters. Sure.
Instead of such pathetic attempts to deny realty with baseless accusations about a poll with a small margin of error, why don't you prove it wrong? Provide some evidence that contradicts it. but of course you cant' so you engage in batshit crazy conspiracies about Yougov and the Economist colluding with Republicans to make Democrats look bad.....
This is an epic strawman.
Do you know what a strawman is? Because you aren't using it correctly in context. Try again.
It is when the topic is what people believe. You claimed Democrats never thought voting machines were being hacked. A majority obviously did and probably still do if asked.
Ok, well, when a seed like that appears, you can chase that rabbit down its hole. That is not the topic of this seed.
No, I said “we,” which is admittedly vague, but I meant officially, as in this country - the Obama administration’s stated position, which I have since quoted, so my meaning should now be clear for you. For the record, I am not a Democrat, just an American.
That was six years after Obama released his original birth certificate, and a year after Donald Trump admitted Obama was born in the USA.
I was responding directly to your false claim. I would not have brought it up, had you not.
Okay.
Too late for those who've spent the last several years neck deep in dirty Donalds ass. It doesn't matter if no one on the left was actually claiming that Russia hacked voting machines, an internet poll is enough evidence for those who allowed Donalds balloon knot to cut off all blood flow to their brains. And because they've already given themselves over to their Lord and Master and greedily slurp at the descending beads of sweat from their Fuhrers taint, logic, reason and facts all just taste stale to them so don't expect any Trump sycophants to come out and admit they're monstrous liars covering for the most corrupt fraud of a President that true patriotic Americans have ever had to confront. True American patriots would NEVER have voted for such a slimy convicted felon who admitted to grabbing women's pussy's, cheated on all of his wives and lies more than he tells the truth. They see right through him. On the other hand, fake dumb-shit Americans who gave up their birthrights for a bowl of MAGA stew love their Pedophile-in-chief.
The more despicable Trump gets, the more his supporters defend him. You have to wonder what it will look like in a few weeks when he's up to his neck in damaging Epstein evidence.
But as established, 2/3 of Democrats believe it.
You should probably break out the underwater iceberg or whatever it was avatar again. It will be just like Mueller all over again. Secret evidence of Trump's downfall is just weeks away! Garland covered it up, but just you wait!
Do you ever wonder why the legal firms that the victims hired found nothing new?
Donald Trump was sexually attracted to teenagers, as a middle aged man, for many years. May still be for all I know. At the least, he was aware of Epsteins perversity and kept it quiet. If he wasnt a cult leader his position would be precarious.
Do you imagine the Clinton family, Chuck Schumer and every other person Epstein hung around with weren't aware Epstein at least liked younger girls? The clintons sent him a 50th birthday card too. The party whose elites gave a standing ovation to Roman Pulanski now is going after Trump for supposedly knowing about Epstein?
Okay. It's like watching a party of Bill Cosbys attacking someone publicly for a whistling at girl.
One of the nation's top law firms represented the victims. They found next to nothing against anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell and even had to apologize to Guiliani. There's almost certainly nothing out there against anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, let alone Trump the most scrutinized man in america. .
I cant even remember you as someone who made comments without whataboutisms.
Jeffery Epstein took the fifth when he was asked in a deposition if he had ever been in a room with Donald Trump and underage girls.
You might be the only one in America who believes that.
How many other questions did he take the fifth to?
Why have the all the law firms who met with Epstein's victims, despite millions of dollars in incentives, been unable to find any supposed johns to recover from? How does your conspiracy explain that?
Lol. Google's AI:
Real winner there.
Nope. Never established, just another bullshit internet poll. Here are some more so you can go in a corner somewhere and expectorate into your MAGA hat.
Oh, remember the polls just before the 2016 election? I'm sure you're just super psyched about backing those up, right? All the ones that had Trump losing. What was it conservatives said about polls at the time? Oh yeah! They said they were full of shit and unreliable! And those weren't even the internet polls!
But what was that about your 2018 bullshit internet poll again? How even a singular hilariously flawed online poll should be believed just because it supports your laughably moronic belief in some whacko election conspiracy theory?
But it's okay, I can't expect anything more from the lowest common denominators here in America always willing to prove just how monumentally stupid and objectively captive they are to their depraved Dear Leader.
The polls were within the margin of error that year, as in every year. Did you not know that? I'm sure this poll was too, or close enough. 2/3 is a massive number so even if they were off more than they've ever been off before, a majority of democrats still believe it.
Rather than embarrassing yourself trying to claim that a poll by one of the leading pollsters can't be trusted because other polls or whatever incoherent point your rant is trying to make, you should probably just stick with your conspiracy The Economist/Republican conspiracy claim. It's somehow more rational than what you are doing now.
Yes, a 'real' winner for sure.
Who else asked that very specific question? What other polls do you have to go off? The only ones embarrassing themselves are those who are clinging to some horseshit internet poll for dear life when you KNOW that's a whole load of horse shit you're clinging to.
No. That's not how a sampling of a thousand people off the internet works. The polls were WILDLY off. This was not a wide poll. This wasn't even a question asked by ANY reputable polling company at the time because it was SO fucking far off base. But it's okay, I get that some dipshits with Trump-for-brains will want to cling to this horse shit and there's nothing I can say that will ever get Trumps dick out of their mouths, so believe what you will, I've already poked so many holes in your laughable claim that you could use it to drain pasta. I'm not going to waste any more time with this brainless conservative drivel.
Do you not understand what's going on? I'll explain.
John thinks he's proven Trump is guilty of something (not sure what ) because Epstein plead the fifth to a question about Trump.
Turns out, Epstein plead the fifth on everything, which means his taking the fifth is utterly meaningless with regards to any specific topic.[✘]
34 felonies, you should look them up.
He said it live on TV, you can youtube it and watch him say it.
Why is that almost certain? Because you wish it?
I guess that poll is from 2018, but judging from the sheer hatred of Trump and his supporters, there is a very good chance that number has gone up.
TDS is overwhelming to some
You misspelled misdemeanors past Statute of Limitations.
Yet the Intel Brief from December 8, 2016 states otherwise.
I don’t know why people struggle with this, but those are two different things.
“Russia took actions intended to interfere with the U.S. election process” =/= “directly manipulate the actual vote count”
There is more to our “election process” than just the vote count.
So why do the left struggle with the lie that Obama told (your link) and the facts in the intel brief (my link)?
No idea what you’re talking about. I invite you to explain what you are referring to.
Can't help you with that.
That tracks.
So does that