Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified another report, this one revealing that the Obama administration directed the intelligence community to release “potentially biased” and “implausible” claims that President Putin interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump, despite having no direct evidence to support the allegation. The report, kept classified and stored in a secure CIA vault until now, was part of an oversight investigation in 2020 by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The report was based off an investigation by then-Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and dated September 18, 2020. It was never released publicly, as Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., had taken over as chairman by the time it was completed. The investigation focused primarily on the creation of the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which the committee now claims was tainted by political motives and constructed under irregular processes.
According to the report, President Obama issued “unusual” directives to intelligence leaders, instructing them to fast-track the ICA before President-elect Trump was sworn in. The assessment was created by just five CIA analysts and one principal drafter under the supervision of then-CIA Director John Brennan, who the report claims inserted findings from the discredited Steele dossier—despite warnings that it was based on “internet rumor.”
The report states that Brennan personally ordered the post-election release of 15 intelligence reports, three of which were flagged as “substandard,” containing unverifiable or biased information. These reports allegedly served as foundational sources for the ICA’s claim that Putin preferred Trump over Clinton. One such claim was based on “one scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence,” the report notes, with no intelligence cited showing Putin ever explicitly said he wanted Trump to win.
Committee investigators found that the ICA “ignored or selectively quoted” more credible intelligence that contradicted its conclusion, including assessments that Putin was prepared for a Clinton victory. A longtime Putin confidant reportedly told U.S. investigators that Putin “did not care who won the election.”
Two senior CIA officers also reportedly warned Brennan that the intelligence community had “no direct information” suggesting Putin’s intent was to help Trump. Despite those warnings, the administration proceeded with the ICA’s publication, just two weeks before Trump took office.
The committee further found that the ICA failed to explain why Putin withheld more damaging material on Clinton, even as polling tightened in the final weeks of the campaign. It also omitted context suggesting that the claim of Putin’s preference for Trump was “implausible—if not ridiculous.”
Read the House Intel Oversight Majority Staff Report
