President Barack Obama made public statements as early as mid-December 2016 indicating that he was endorsing a predetermined CIA view about Vladimir Putin allegedly wanting Donald Trump to win and Hillary Clinton to lose. The intelligence community assessment (ICA) had not even been completed and was still being debated and drafted.
The record — bolstered by newly-declassified documents — shows that Obama was a central figure at key points throughout the Russiagate saga. Obama directed the creation of a new ICA on Russian meddling only after Trump was victorious in November 2016. Well before the ICA was finalized, Obama repeatedly endorsed the controversial and inaccurate conclusion from the CIA, run at the time by Director John Brennan. That conclusion was spun into a widely-adopted narrative that Putin had allegedly ordered election meddling in 2016 to hurt Clinton’s chances and to help Trump win.
Obama endorsed an anonymously-leaked CIA assessment on Russian meddling in mid-December 2016 during an interview with NPR, roughly two weeks before the ICA was finalized in late December 2016. Obama said during the interview that no one should be “surprised by the CIA assessment that this was done purposely to improve Trump’s chances” — a claim he was making following anonymous leaks to the media about the CIA’s alleged position, preempting the completion of the formal ICA later that month.
Obama’s pre-judged outcome
Obama similarly hinted that he had already come to the conclusion that Russia had allegedly meddled to hurt Clinton and help Trump during a mid-December 2016 White House press conference and a mid-December 2016 appearance on The Daily Show — both roughly two weeks prior to the ICA being completed.
Despite Obama’s perpetuating the falsity in mid-December 2016, a recent CIA review ordered by Director John Ratcliffe stated that the most-highly classified version of the ICA would not be completed until December 30, 2016. A less declassified version of the ICA would be dated January 5, 2017 — with the public version of the ICA dated the following day.
The post-election January 2017 ICA was put together by just the CIA, FBI, and NSA — led at the time by then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-NSA director Admiral Mike Rogers, and since-fired FBI Director James Comey — with input from then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Gabbard: Proof that Obama knew it was false
“There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false,” Gabbard asserted from the podium at the White House press briefing room last month. “They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true. It wasn’t.”
A spokesperson for Obama released a statement in response to Gabbard’s allegations, where he sought to deny Gabbard’s claims.
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one,” the Obama statement read.
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