A cache of newly declassified materials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the CIA, and the Department of Justice inspector general reveals how senior Obama administration officials pursued the discredited Trump-Russia investigation during the 2016 election, even as they opted not to take action against Hillary Clinton due to concerns over political optics.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stated Wednesday that she expects her office’s disclosures to prompt the Justice Department to consider charges against former President Barack Obama and members of his administration.
“There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Barack Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew that was false,” Gabbard said at the White House.
When asked about legal accountability, she responded, “That’s a great question for Attorney General Pam Bondi,” according to the Washington Examiner.
Among the newly released records is the 2020 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) majority staff report, previously classified, which shows differing standards applied to the Trump and Clinton campaigns in 2016.
Clinton received what federal officials described as “deference,” while the Trump campaign faced aggressive surveillance based on unverified claims, rapidly pushed into public and legal channels.
“The Russia hoax will go down as one of the most troublesome events in U.S. history. A President of the United States was falsely accused, and a nation had to endure lies fabricated by rogue personnel within their own intelligence community,” said HPSCI Chairman Rick Crawford (R-AR).
The materials echo findings from Special Counsel John Durham’s 2023 report, documenting how senior officials promoted unsubstantiated allegations linking the Trump campaign to Russia.
The timeline of the investigation, as compiled by the Washington Examiner, spans key events from May 2016 through April 2019, drawing from the House Intelligence Committee report, DNI emails, CIA reviews, court filings, the Mueller report, and additional government records.
The timeline includes significant developments such as the May 2016 conversation between Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and Australian diplomats, which was later used to justify opening the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation on July 31, 2016.
It also outlines Hillary Clinton’s approval of a campaign proposal on July 26, 2016, to “vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services,” a claim relayed to the CIA shortly thereafter.
By August 3, 2016, CIA Director John Brennan briefed Obama and other officials on Clinton’s plan.
Days later, FBI officials, including Peter Strzok, exchanged messages revealing intentions to prevent Trump’s election.
“We’ll stop it,” Strzok wrote to FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
The timeline documents the use of the unverified Steele dossier, paid for by the Clinton campaign, in FISA applications to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Steele met with journalists at the Tabard Inn in Washington, D.C., to spread allegations, while the FBI included his claims in October 2016 surveillance applications despite lacking corroboration.
Declassified records also show that U.S. intelligence agencies debated Russia’s intent in 2016. Internal FBI emails from September 2016 express concern about overstating Russia’s motives.
“We lack sufficient technical details to correlate the information posted online to Russian state-sponsored actors,” one FBI analyst wrote.
Obama’s order on December 6, 2016, to create a new intelligence community assessment (ICA) before Trump took office led to disputes within the CIA and FBI.
CIA officials warned against including the Steele dossier due to its questionable reliability, but Brennan insisted on its inclusion, according to internal emails and later findings.
Further, congressional investigators found that Brennan’s analysts inserted fragments from unverified reports into the ICA to support the claim that Putin aspired to help Trump win, while excluding intelligence from reliable sources suggesting Moscow viewed Trump as a potential challenge.
The ICA’s final version, released on January 6, 2017, asserted that Putin favored Trump.
CNN later reported that Trump had been briefed on the dossier.
BuzzFeed then published the dossier in full.
The timeline concludes with key events into 2017, including the interviews of Igor Danchenko, who admitted the dossier’s claims stemmed from casual gossip.
Despite this, the FBI used the dossier in repeated FISA applications through June 2017.
In June 2017, FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith altered a CIA email to falsely state that Carter Page was “not a source,” omitting Page’s past cooperation with the CIA.
Clinesmith later pleaded guilty to doctoring the email but received no prison time.
The Mueller investigation, launched in May 2017, formally ended in April 2019.
The Mueller report found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
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