Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard delivered a blistering response Tuesday after former President Barack Obama publicly denied involvement in the intelligence manipulation that fueled the Russia collusion hoax — a claim backed by both President Donald Trump and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“Barack Hussein Obama is the ringleader,” Trump declared earlier this week. “Hillary Clinton was right there with him, and so was Sleepy Joe Biden… They tried to rig an election, and then they got caught.”
Obama’s office issued a statement dismissing the allegations as “ridiculous” and “a weak attempt at distraction,” after reports confirmed that the Department of Justice had received a criminal referral from Gabbard. Her office declassified over 100 documents last week — with more expected — detailing how the original intelligence assessment, which found no Russian interference in the 2016 election infrastructure, was abruptly canceled and replaced with a politically charged rewrite at Obama’s direction.
“It’s the art of deflection,” Gabbard told Lara Trump during an appearance on Fox News. “Neither Obama’s team nor his allies in the media or Congress have addressed the fundamental fact: the intelligence community initially assessed that Russia did not interfere. That changed only after President Trump was elected.”
Gabbard outlined a timeline showing how Obama called a National Security Council meeting on December 9, 2016, just two days after the initial non-interference assessment, and ordered a new report. That report, released on January 6, 2017, relied heavily on debunked sources — including the Steele dossier — and laid the groundwork for the years-long smear campaign against Trump.
“You saw Brennan, Clapper, and Comey say they had ‘high confidence’ in that new report, even though it was built on discredited intelligence,” Gabbard noted. “They knew it couldn’t be verified. They pushed it anyway.”
The former congresswoman accused Obama and his intelligence chiefs of engineering a “180-degree shift” in the official narrative solely to delegitimize Trump’s presidency.
“This wasn’t just political dirty tricks. This was a coordinated effort, directed from the top, to manufacture an intelligence assessment for the purpose of launching a coup,” she said. “That’s not my opinion — that’s what the documents show.”
Gabbard said she’s encouraged by the growing number of whistleblowers coming forward from within the intelligence community.
“These are people who were there when it happened, and they’re disgusted,” she said. “They want the truth out. And so do I.”
Gabbard confirmed that all documents have been referred to the DOJ and pledged to continue pressing for criminal accountability.
“The American people were lied to. They deserve justice. They deserve to know that their votes matter and that no administration — not even one led by Barack Obama — can override their will,” she concluded.