Misleading government allegations about the Russia investigation

Misleading government allegations about the Russia investigation

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Friday new intelligence documents released and declassified what they say is evidence of a "treasonous conspiracy" by senior Obama administration officials to... Claiming that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Fake allegations or actual fabrication?

The allegations conflate and represent what the intelligence community has actually concluded, according to a review of one GOP-led Senate investigation from 2020, as well as interviews with congressional sources familiar with the investigation. The newly released documents do not diminish the administration's basic findings from its 2017 assessment that Russia launched an influence and hacking campaign and sought to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton, the sources said.

Unchanged election results due to cyber attacks

Gabbard's new claims are based on pre-election assessments and statements from Obama-era intelligence officials who found that the Russians did not change the election results through cyberattacks on voting systems. However, the intelligence community's January 2017 assessment never concluded that Russian cyberattacks influenced the outcome of the 2016 election or that election infrastructure was in any way compromised, although states' election systems were examined.

Russia's role in influencing the elections

Instead, the assessment focused on Russia's influence campaign ordered by President Vladimir Putin, as well as cyber operations against U.S. and Democratic Party officials, including the hacked emails released by WikiLeaks. A former senior congressional staffer familiar with the Senate review explained: "These two things — cyberattacks on infrastructure and hacking the DNC — are different, and they're being mixed together to make a political point. That's deeply misleading in the first place." In 2020, a bipartisan Senate committee agreed with the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the election and that Putin played a leading role in the matter.

Gabbard's controversial theses

Several sources in Congress familiar with the Senate report People familiar said Gabbard is trying to rely on intelligence assessments that no election systems were breached to falsely imply that a Russian influence and cyber campaign did not occur. The Senate review included interviews with the intelligence analysts who wrote the report, none of whom reported political interference.

Dispute over the interpretation of the facts

Gabbard's release of declassified documents is just the latest example of attempts by Trump administration officials to rewrite the history of the Russia investigation during the first six months of the president's presidency. Last month, CIA Director John Ratcliffe also released one examination, which criticized the intelligence community's conclusion that Putin was trying to help Trump. Ratcliffe referred former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey to the Justice Department, which is now investigating.

Summary of events

Trump and his allies have sought for years to denounce all aspects of the Russia investigation that made up much of the first two years of Trump's first term in office — including the 2017 intelligence assessment, special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation and former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele's infamous dossier, which was funded by the Clinton campaign and alleged coordination between the Russian government and people tied to the Trump campaign.