Latest news with #treasonousconspiracy
The Independent
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
John Bolton slams Tulsi Gabbard over ‘treasonous' Obama report: ‘She's imagined evidence that doesn't exist'
John Bolton, Trump's former national security advisor, slammed Tulsi Gabbard's report accusing former President Barack Obama of engaging in a 'years-long coup' against President Donald Trump. Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, last week declassified evidence that she said revealed a 'treasonous conspiracy' committed by Obama and his government over the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Bolton, a frequent Trump critic, called Gabbard's findings 'exaggerated' and lacking in substance. 'She's strung together a series of things that aren't necessarily related, she's exaggerated what actual congressional reports have said, she's imagined evidence that doesn't exist,' Bolton said Friday on NewsNation. 'So, if anybody really gets into it, it collapses pretty quickly. But as a campaign to save her job, I think it actually worked out pretty successfully for her,' he continued. Last month, Politico reported that the president was 'down on her.' 'Whether it succeeded in distracting from the Jeffrey Epstein affair, I don't know,' he added, alluding to the media firestorm over Trump's ties to the late sex offender that has plagued the administration for weeks. 'But there is, in substance, nothing to it and certainly no justification for the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation.' Gabbard's report accuses Obama and the former intelligence community of leaking false information to the media and using 'politicized intelligence' to subvert Trump's 2016 election victory. She addressed the report from the White House this week. The report uses an investigation by Republicans in the House of Representatives, and go against CIA reports that Russia tried to help Trump in 2016. 'The information we are releasing today clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government,' the director of national intelligence said in a statement. 'Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup with the objective of trying to usurp the President from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people.' In the wake of the report's release, Democrats — including Obama — have accused the Trump administration of trying to use it to distract from the uproar over the so-called Epstein files. "These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,' a spokesperson for the office of the former president said. Trump has been trying to distance himself from Epstein. He even went so far as to claim the Epstein files were a 'hoax' cooked up by Democrats, including Obama, former President Biden, and former FBI Director James Comey. The Epstein files have dominated the news cycle ever since the Justice Department released a July 6 memo that stated there would be no further disclosures and that there was no evidence to support the existence of a client list, putting a decisive end to months-long anticipation for more information on the case. Outrage ensued, with members of Congress and Trump's MAGA base alike calling for heightened transparency. Attorney General Pam Bondi released 'Phase 1' of the Epstein files in February; that same month, she said the 'client list' was sitting on her desk.
France 24
7 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
White House revives 'Obama coup' claim to deflect Epstein scandal
The White House pulled out all the stops Wednesday to promote claims that Barack Obama headed a "treasonous conspiracy" against Donald Trump, seeking to redirect public attention from uproar over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein affair. Trump's intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard told a White House press briefing there had been a "years-long coup" by Obama. The extraordinary narrative essentially rehashed Trump's longstanding argument that investigations into Russia 's multi-layered attempts to disrupt the 2016 election, where he beat Hillary Clinton, were a "hoax" against him. Gabbard touted newly declassified intelligence that she said provided "irrefutable evidence" that Obama had ordered intelligence assessments to be manipulated to accuse Russia of election interference to help Trump. The Justice Department announced the formation of a "Strike Force" to examine the allegations with "utmost seriousness." But Gabbard's findings run up against four separate criminal, counterintelligence and watchdog probes between 2019 and 2023 – each of them concluding that Russia did interfere and did, in various ways, help Trump. As a way to distract from the intensifying speculation over Trump's handling of the case against the late sex offender and reputed pedophile pimp to the powerful Epstein, the Obama accusations had some effect. White House journalists at the briefing barely asked about Epstein, focusing instead on Gabbard's claims, and Fox News heavily promoted the Obama story to its right-wing audience. However, the Epstein scandal quickly roared back, showing just how hard it is for 79-year-old Trump to maintain his usual mastery of driving news agendas – even within his fervently loyal "MAGA" base. Trump's name in files Epstein was a financier and friend to numerous high-profile people – for years, including Trump – who was convicted of sex crimes and then imprisoned pending trial for allegedly trafficking underage girls. His 2019 prison cell death – ruled a suicide – supercharged a conspiracy theory long promoted by many of Trump's supporters that Epstein had run an international pedophile ring and that elites wanted to make sure he never revealed their secrets. After Trump came to power for a second term this January, his administration promised to release Epstein case files. But when US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on July 7 that she had nothing to release, Republicans were furious – and Trump has been attempting to control the scandal ever since. Things got even more complicated for him after The Wall Street Journal last week reported that Trump had written a lewd birthday letter to Epstein in 2003. Trump denies this and has sued the Journal. On Wednesday, the Journal dropped a new story, saying Bondi had informed Trump in May that his name appeared several times in the Epstein files, even if there was no indication of wrongdoing. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called this "fake news" and said Trump had long ago broken with Epstein and "kicked him out of his club for being a creep." However, the drip-drip of reminders of Trump's close former relationship with Epstein is proving hard to stop. Several of Trump's most effective promoters over the years – including new FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino – made careers of fanning the rumors about Epstein. Democrats are piling on the pressure. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives sent lawmakers home early for a six-week summer break Wednesday to avoid being forced into holding politically awkward votes on the affair. But some lawmakers on the "MAGA" right have indicated they are in no mood to let Epstein drop, and several bids for transparency are in the works. Just before the declared recess, Democrats on a House subcommittee panel forced a vote on subpoenaing the Justice Department for documents regarding Epstein. The measure passed with bipartisan support. In another bid to satisfy his base, Trump had told Bondi to release "credible" Epstein information and to seek release of grand jury transcripts from the 2005 and 2007 investigations of Epstein. But on Wednesday a judge rejected this, citing legal secrecy protocols.
Washington Post
7 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Gabbard's claims of an anti-Trump conspiracy are not supported by declassified documents
WASHINGTON — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard this month declassified material that she claimed proved a 'treasonous conspiracy' by the Obama administration in 2016 to politicize U.S. intelligence in service of casting doubt on the legitimacy of Donald Trump's election victory. As evidence, Gabbard cited newly declassified emails from Obama officials and a five-year-old classified House report in hopes of undermining the intelligence community's conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to boost Trump and denigrate his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gabbard's claims of an anti-Trump conspiracy are not supported by declassified documents
WASHINGTON (AP) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard this month declassified material that she claimed proved a 'treasonous conspiracy' by the Obama administration in 2016 to politicize U.S. intelligence in service of casting doubt on the legitimacy of Donald Trump's election victory. As evidence, Gabbard cited newly declassified emails from Obama officials and a five-year-old classified House report in hopes of undermining the intelligence community's conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to boost Trump and denigrate his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Russia's activities during the 2016 election remain some of the most examined events in recent history. The Kremlin's campaign and the subsequent U.S. government response were the subject of at least five major investigations by the Republican-led House and Senate intelligence committee; two Justice Department special counsels; and the department's inspector general. Those investigations either concluded — or accepted the conclusion — that Russia embarked on a campaign to interfere in the election through the use of social media and hacked material. The House-led probe, conducted by Trump allies, also concurred that Russia ran an election interference campaign but said the purpose was to sow chaos in the U.S. rather than boost Trump. Several of the reports criticize the actions of Obama administration officials, particularly at the FBI, but do not dispute the fundamental findings that Moscow sought to interfere in the election. The Associated Press has reviewed those reports to evaluate how Gabbard's claims stack up: Russian election interference CLAIM: 'The intelligence community had one assessment: that Russia did not have the intent and capability to try to impact the outcome of the U.S. election leading up to Election Day. The same assessment was made after the election.' — Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday. The documents Gabbard released do not support her claim. She cites a handful of emails from 2016 in which officials conclude that Russia had no intention of manipulating the U.S. vote count through cyberattacks on voting systems. President Barack Obama's administration never alleged that voting infrastructure was tampered with. Rather, the administration said Russia ran a covert influence campaign using hacked and stolen material from prominent Democrats. Russian operatives then used that information as part of state-funded media and social media operations to inflame U.S. public opinion. More than two dozen Russians were indicted in 2018 in connection with those efforts. Republican-led investigations in Congress have affirmed that conclusion, and the emails that Gabbard released do not contradict that finding. Shift in assessment? CLAIM: 'There was a shift, a 180-degree shift, from the intelligence community's assessment leading up to the election to the one that President Obama directed be produced after Donald Trump won the election that completely contradicted those assessments that had come previously.' — Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday. There was no shift. The emails Gabbard released show that a Department of Homeland Security official in August 2016 told then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper there was 'no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count.' The public assessment the Obama administration made public in January 2017 reached the same conclusion: 'DHS assesses that the types of systems Russian actors targeted or compromised were not involved in vote tallying." Putin's intent CLAIM: 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.' — Gabbard on Truth Social Wednesday. The material declassified this week reveals some dissent within the intelligence community about whether Putin wanted to help Trump or simply inflame the U.S. public. That same question led to a partisan divide on the House Intelligence panel when it examined the matter several years later. Gabbard's memo released last week cites a 'whistleblower' who she says served in the intelligence community at the time and who is quoted as saying that he could not 'concur in good conscience' with the intelligence community's judgment that Russia had a 'decisive preference' for Trump. Such dissent and debate are not unusual in the drafting of intelligence reports. The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee examined whether there was any political interference in the Obama administration's conclusions and reported that 'all analysts expressed that they were free to debate, object to content, and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper.' In 2018, Putin directly addressed the question of whether he preferred Trump at a press conference in Helsinki even as he sidestepped a question about whether he directed any of his subordinates to help Trump. 'Yes, I did,' Putin said. 'Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal.' Steele dossier CLAIM: 'They used already discredited information like the Steele dossier — they knew it was discredited at the time.' — Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday. The dossier refers to a collection of opposition research files compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, whose work was funded by Democrats during the 2016 election. Those files included uncorroborated tips and salacious gossip about Trump's ties to Russia, but the importance to the Russia investigation has sometimes been overstated. It was not the basis for the FBI's decision to open an investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, the Justice Department's inspector general found. Some of the records released by Gabbard this week also reveal that it was a Central Intelligence Agency human source close to the Kremlin that the agency primarily relied on for its conclusion that Putin wanted to help Trump and hurt Clinton, not the Steele dossier. FBI agents on the case didn't even come to possess the dossier until weeks into their inquiry. Even so, Trump supporters have seized on the unverified innuendo in the document to undercut the broader Russia investigation. Many of Steele's claims have since been discredited or denied. It is true, however, that the FBI and Justice Department relied in part on the Steele dossier to obtain surveillance warrants to eavesdrop on the communications of a former Trump campaign adviser, the inspector general found. FBI agents continued to pursue those warrants even after questions arose about the credibility of Steele's reporting. The dossier was also summarized — over the objections of then-CIA Director John Brennan, he has said — in a two-page annex to the classified version of the intelligence community assessment.
Associated Press
7 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Gabbard's claims of an anti-Trump conspiracy are not supported by declassified documents
WASHINGTON (AP) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard this month declassified material that she claimed proved a 'treasonous conspiracy' by the Obama administration in 2016 to politicize U.S. intelligence in service of casting doubt on the legitimacy of Donald Trump's election victory. As evidence, Gabbard cited newly declassified emails from Obama officials and a five-year-old classified House report in hopes of undermining the intelligence community's conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to boost Trump and denigrate his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Russia's activities during the 2016 election remain some of the most examined events in recent history. The Kremlin's campaign and the subsequent U.S. government response were the subject of at least five major investigations by the Republican-led House and Senate intelligence committee; two Justice Department special counsels; and the department's inspector general. Those investigations either concluded — or accepted the conclusion — that Russia embarked on a campaign to interfere in the election through the use of social media and hacked material. The House-led probe, conducted by Trump allies, also concurred that Russia ran an election interference campaign but said the purpose was to sow chaos in the U.S. rather than boost Trump. Several of the reports criticize the actions of Obama administration officials, particularly at the FBI, but do not dispute the fundamental findings that Moscow sought to interfere in the election. The Associated Press has reviewed those reports to evaluate how Gabbard's claims stack up: Russian election interferenceCLAIM: 'The intelligence community had one assessment: that Russia did not have the intent and capability to try to impact the outcome of the U.S. election leading up to Election Day. The same assessment was made after the election.' — Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday. The documents Gabbard released do not support her claim. She cites a handful of emails from 2016 in which officials conclude that Russia had no intention of manipulating the U.S. vote count through cyberattacks on voting systems. President Barack Obama's administration never alleged that voting infrastructure was tampered with. Rather, the administration said Russia ran a covert influence campaign using hacked and stolen material from prominent Democrats. Russian operatives then used that information as part of state-funded media and social media operations to inflame U.S. public opinion. More than two dozen Russians were indicted in 2018 in connection with those efforts. Republican-led investigations in Congress have affirmed that conclusion, and the emails that Gabbard released do not contradict that finding. Shift in assessment? CLAIM: 'There was a shift, a 180-degree shift, from the intelligence community's assessment leading up to the election to the one that President Obama directed be produced after Donald Trump won the election that completely contradicted those assessments that had come previously.' — Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday. There was no shift. The emails Gabbard released show that a Department of Homeland Security official in August 2016 told then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper there was 'no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count.' The public assessment the Obama administration made public in January 2017 reached the same conclusion: 'DHS assesses that the types of systems Russian actors targeted or compromised were not involved in vote tallying.' Putin's intent CLAIM: 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.' — Gabbard on Truth Social Wednesday. The material declassified this week reveals some dissent within the intelligence community about whether Putin wanted to help Trump or simply inflame the U.S. public. That same question led to a partisan divide on the House Intelligence panel when it examined the matter several years later. Gabbard's memo released last week cites a 'whistleblower' who she says served in the intelligence community at the time and who is quoted as saying that he could not 'concur in good conscience' with the intelligence community's judgment that Russia had a 'decisive preference' for Trump. Such dissent and debate are not unusual in the drafting of intelligence reports. The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee examined whether there was any political interference in the Obama administration's conclusions and reported that 'all analysts expressed that they were free to debate, object to content, and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper.' In 2018, Putin directly addressed the question of whether he preferred Trump at a press conference in Helsinki even as he sidestepped a question about whether he directed any of his subordinates to help Trump. 'Yes, I did,' Putin said. 'Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal.' Steele dossier CLAIM: 'They used already discredited information like the Steele dossier — they knew it was discredited at the time.' — Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday. The dossier refers to a collection of opposition research files compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, whose work was funded by Democrats during the 2016 election. Those files included uncorroborated tips and salacious gossip about Trump's ties to Russia, but the importance to the Russia investigation has sometimes been overstated. It was not the basis for the FBI's decision to open an investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, the Justice Department's inspector general found. Some of the records released by Gabbard this week also reveal that it was a Central Intelligence Agency human source close to the Kremlin that the agency primarily relied on for its conclusion that Putin wanted to help Trump and hurt Clinton, not the Steele dossier. FBI agents on the case didn't even come to possess the dossier until weeks into their inquiry. Even so, Trump supporters have seized on the unverified innuendo in the document to undercut the broader Russia investigation. Many of Steele's claims have since been discredited or denied. It is true, however, that the FBI and Justice Department relied in part on the Steele dossier to obtain surveillance warrants to eavesdrop on the communications of a former Trump campaign adviser, the inspector general found. FBI agents continued to pursue those warrants even after questions arose about the credibility of Steele's reporting. The dossier was also summarized — over the objections of then-CIA Director John Brennan, he has said — in a two-page annex to the classified version of the intelligence community assessment.
