Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. Director of Natural Intelligence, wants Barack Obama and several security officials prosecuted over claims that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election win stemmed from Russian interference.
Gabbard believes Obama and the U.S. security officials “[laid] the groundwork for … a years-long coup” against Trump. She insists this started after Trump’s win against Democratic contender Hillary Clinton 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,” Gabbard said.
Senator Mark Warner, Democratic vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, strongly challenged Gabbard
’s claims.“Tulsi Gabbard is not competent to be the director of national intelligence,” Warner said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on July 18, the Hill reported. “I believe she is trying to politicize the workforce and work product, and that makes America less safe.”
Warner emphasized that a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee investigation had “reaffirmed that ‘the Russian government directed extensive activity against U.S. election infrastructure.’” He argued that Gabbard’s allegations of a “treasonous conspiracy” by Obama-era officials are baseless and pose a risk by undermining intelligence credibility.
According to The Guardian, Gabbard cited the collection of documents
complied by British intelligence analyst, Christopher Steele. The former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii claims that Obama and the fellow accused individuals knew the documents held unverifiable information. (Gabbard joined the Republican Party in 2024.)Her assertion lists several high-ranking officials, including Obama’s own director of intelligence James Clapper, former CIA director John Brennan, and then-secretary of state, John Kerry.
Gabbard added, “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.”
Gabbard intends to pass along her supporting documents to the Department of Justice. She hopes the moves will result in the launch of a federal case
against Obama and the former officials. The documents include an intelligence community assessment on 2016 cyber threats, created during the Obama administration and formerly classified memos from Clapper.“The Obama administration shares the unclassified ICA [intelligence community assessment] with the public. It falsely alleges, based in part on ‘further information’ that had ‘come to light’ since the election, that Putin directed an effort to help President Trump defeat Hillary Clinton,” detailed accompanying papers titled “The Russian Hoax” published by Gabbard’s office. “This ‘further information’ is later confirmed to be the Steele dossier.”
Gabbard wants the former president and high-profile officials prosecuted to the “fullest extent of the law” for the alleged crimes.
This news, however, may intend to divert attention away from Trump’s current political scandal regarding Jeffrey Epstein. Pressure from his supportive base has grown for Trump to release the files on the sex trafficker’s client list. However, Trump has continuously denied the papers’ existence.
He also called the Russian election interference claims a “hoax.”
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