Late last Friday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released a bombshell report containing newly declassified documents she said reveal a plot within the highest levels of the government “to manufacture and politicize intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President [Donald] Trump.”
Changing Their Tune
The documents revealed that the intelligence community was prepared to conclude in December 2016 that Russia did not use cyber attacks on U.S. election infrastructure and any criminal activity from Russian-affiliated criminal actors “failed to reach the scale and sophistication necessary to change election outcomes.” Instead, Russia’s interference in the 2016 election mirrored the minor interference it had done in many elections prior.
The Presidential Daily Brief drafted on December 8, 2016, stated that no Russian or criminal actors impacted vote counts, but the document was pulled just hours before it was to be published due to “new guidance.” If it had been published, it would have been briefed to both President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump.
The following day, December 9, 2016, then-President Obama, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, and other high-level officials met at the White House, and post-meeting notes released by Gabbard show a complete change in the intel community’s attitude toward Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The 2020 House Report
On Wednesday, Director Gabbard declassified a previously unreleased September 2020 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence report that she said further outlines a plot by President Obama and other high-ranking officials to manufacture the Russian interference narrative with intelligence they knew to be unreliable.
This newly released report – the result of an investigation launched by then-Chairman of the Committee Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and finished after Democrats regained the majority in 2019 under Democrat Adam Schiff – found many serious flaws with the intelligence and methods used to craft the Obama-ordered 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA).
But it never saw the light of day, until now.
It analyzed the tradecraft used to compile the ICA and found “production of the ICA was subject to unusual directives from the president and senior political appointees,” particularly then-CIA Director Brennan. The draft was “not properly coordinated with CIA or [the intelligence community],” which meant “it would be published without significant challenges to its conclusions.”
Possible Punishment
Gabbard has referred the documents to the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate possible criminal implications for top Obama administration officials, including the former president himself. “The evidence that we have found and that we have released directly point to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment,” she told reporters. “There are multiple pieces of evidence and intelligence that confirm that fact.”
The DOJ announced the creation of a strike force late Wednesday to “assess the evidence publicized by DNI Gabbard and investigate potential next legal steps, which might stem from those disclosures.”
In-Depth Analysis
Racket News founder Matt Taibbi has been covering the Russiagate hoax from the beginning, and he joined Megyn throughout the week to make sense of the documents and lay out how the Russia interference narrative took hold. Keep scrolling for the full breakdown:
The ‘Smoking Gun’
Megyn and Taibbi discuss Director Gabbard’s release of explosive documents on Russian interference, why the Obama White House meeting on December 9, 2016, is the key Russiagate “smoking gun,” how Obama-era intel officials changed their assessment after an Obama-directed meeting, and more.
Colluding with the Media?
What we now know about the apparent collusion between the Obama administration and the press on Russiagate, how the media ignored the Steele Dossier until the White House elevated the nonsense, and more.
What Brennan Ordered at CIA
What the buried 2020 House Intelligence Report reveals about then-President Obama directive to shift the Russian interference narrative shift, former CIA Director Brennan’s outsized role in shaping the “Trump collusion” storyline, and more.
Possible Perjury
Megyn and Taibbi review Brennan’s 2017 testimony before Congress about the Steele Dossier in the wake of these new revelations, why it appears as though he wasn’t telling the truth, new information about why he included faulty information in the ICA, and more.
Why Russiagate Took Hold
Megyn and the hosts of Ruthless – Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook – explore how the media and political elites bought into the Russiagate hoax because they couldn’t believe Trump really won in 2016, the false narratives that the left continues to believe in 2025, and more.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.