Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard overruled objections from case officers within the CIA and other intelligence agencies to release a “minimally redacted” set of declassified documents exposing the Obama administration’s fabricated Trump-Russia collusion narrative, sources told The Washington Post.
President Donald Trump reportedly authorized Gabbard last month to release a highly classified House Intelligence Committee report, with the backing of CIA Director John Ratcliffe and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. However, sources said other members of the intelligence community cautioned that more of the files should have been redacted, the report said.
Gabbard said the 46-page House Intelligence Committee report exposed new details about what she called the ““most egregious weaponization and politicization of intelligence in American history.” Her comments came just days after she released classified communications from senior Obama administration officials that she said laid the foundation for the years-long Trump-Russia investigation.
On X, Gabbard wrote: “Per President @realDonaldTrump‘s directive, I have declassified a @HouseIntel oversight majority staff report that exposes how the Obama Administration manufactured the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that they knew was false, promoting the LIE that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government helped President Trump win the 2016 election.”
She added: “In doing so, they conspired to subvert the will of the American people, working with their partners in the media to promote the lie, in order to undermine the legitimacy of President Trump, essentially enacting a years-long coup against him.”
Gabbard highlighted five key findings in the report, including that former CIA Director John Brennan and others allegedly “fabricated the Russia Hoax, suppressed intelligence showing Putin was preparing for a Clinton victory, manufactured findings from shoddy sources, disobeyed IC standards, and knowingly lied to the American people.”
A source familiar with the process told the Washington Post that the “CIA put forward their proposed redactions and edits to the document,” but Gabbard “has greater declassification authority than all other intelligence elements and is not required to get their approval prior to release.” Trump himself approved the version “with minimal redactions and no edits,” the individual said.
