Tulsi Gabbard's Office Singles Out Obama for Being Ringleader in Russian Collusion Hoax

Townhall 

RealClearInvestigations' Paul Sperry teased it earlier this week: Tulsi Gabbard’s office was considering a massive disclosure of documents related to the Russian collusion hoax. Well, they've been released.

Former FBI Chief James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan are already under investigation for their conduct during this shambolic operation to derail a duly elected president—Donald Trump—by peddling politicized intelligence that everyone and their mother knew was a political opposition research project. The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland was spot-on when she said another person was missing in the investigation, and that would be former President Barack Obama, who appears to be the ringleader in this circus.  

To recap, the initial intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference was that Moscow lacked the capability. It never got published due to “new guidance.” That being the inclusion of the Steele Dossier, which was pushed by CIA director John Brennan, despite analysts disputing its veracity. He forced it into the report, elevating Russian disinformation to credible status. Brennan later denied that this was a core piece of the intelligence assessment in his May 2017 testimony, which might have opened the door for perjury charges. He said under oath that the Steele Dossier “wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done.”

That December 9, 2016, meeting was one of two that should be bookmarked. Obama ordered former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to generate a new intelligence assessment with all the fake news documents aimed at hamstringing the next administration. That report contradicted multiple intelligence agencies’ reports on the issue, which all ran counter to this cockamamie plot that the Kremlin tilted the election and that Donald Trump was a Russian agent. Not long after this meeting, the leaks to the press began, and the collusion hoax was born.  

Yet, time was the one resource the Obama administration didn’t have. They were on their way out, with this politically motivated investigation destined to run longer than January 20, 2017. On January 5, 2017, the soon-to-be-ex-president gave his final marching orders on the Russian collusion hoax, notably not to share key information with the Trump transition team and engage in serial media leaks to generate chaos for the incoming administration. The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway touched on this five years ago—it’s now all drawn together: 

A clearer picture is emerging of the drastic steps that were taken to accomplish Obama’s goal in the following weeks and months. Shortly thereafter, high-level operatives began intensely leaking selective information supporting a supposed Russia-Trump conspiracy theory, the incoming National Security Advisor was ambushed, and the incoming Attorney General was forced to recuse himself from oversight of investigations of President Trump. At each major point in the operation, explosive media leaks were a key strategy in the operation to take down Trump.

Not only was information on Russia not fully shared with the incoming Trump team, as Obama directs, the leaks and ambushes made the transition chaotic, scared quality individuals away from working in the administration, made effective governance almost impossible, and materially damaged national security. When Comey was finally fired on May 9, in part for his duplicitousness regarding his handling of the Russia collusion theory, he orchestrated the launch of a Special Counsel probe that continued his efforts for another two years. That probe ended with Mueller finding no evidence of any American colluding with Russia to steal the 2016 election, much less Trump or anyone connected to him.

An analysis of the timeline from early 2017 shows a clear pattern of behavior from the federal officials running the collusion operation against the Trump campaign. It also shows how essential media leaks were to their strategy to sideline key law enforcement and intelligence officials and cripple the ability of the incoming Trump administration to run the country. 

[…] 

January 5: Yates, Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper briefed Obama on Russia-related matters in the Oval Office. Biden and Rice also attended. After the Obama briefing, the intelligence chiefs who would be leaving at the end of the term were dismissed and Yates and Comey, who would continue in the Trump administration, were asked to stay. Not only did Obama give his guidance about how to perpetuate the Russia collusion theory investigations, he also talked about Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to both Comey and Yates. Interestingly, Clapper, Comey, and Yates all said that they did not brief Obama about these phone calls. Clapper testified he did not brief Obama on the calls, Yates learned about the calls from Obama himself during that meeting, and Comey also testified he didn’t brief Obama about the calls, even though the intelligence was an FBI product. Rice, who publicly lied but later admitted under oath to her widespread use of unmasked intelligence at the end of the Obama administration, likely briefed Obama on the calls and would have had access to the intelligence. Comey mentions the Logan Act at this meeting.

It was this meeting that Rice memorialized in a bizarre inauguration-day email to herself that claimed Obama told the gathered to do everything “by the book.” But Rice also noted in her email that the key point of discussion in that meeting was whether and how to withhold national security information, likely including details of the investigation into Trump himself, from the incoming Trump national security team. 

“The issue I am raising is not a partisan issue. It is one that concerns every American. 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,” said DNI Tulsi Gabbard in a press release. “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,” 

She added: 

“Their egregious abuse of power and blatant rejection of our Constitution threatens the very foundation and integrity of our democratic republic. No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. The American people’s faith and trust in our democratic republic and therefore the future of our nation depends on it. As such, I am providing all documents to the Department of Justice to deliver the accountability that President Trump, his family, and the American people deserve.” 

So, when can we investigate Obama, who has his fingerprints all over this operation? As we’ve known for quite some time, and with these new documents, there’s no way he didn’t know unless he’s more senile and incompetent than Joe Biden.  

The Justice Department has its hands full dealing with rogue judges, carrying out immigration orders, purging its anti-Trump and biased operations, and now the Jeffrey Epstein saga. But that’s expected; when is the DOJ not busy? It’s time someone there dare to investigate the former president who, like the rest of his party, threw a tantrum and ordered the intelligence community, the FBI, and the Justice Department to weaponize the intelligence, include shoddy assessments to bolster narratives, leak them to the press, and then hide as much as they could once he left office so the slow bleed could continue. It is this stuff that fuels the Epstein case, because there are legitimate concerns that the Deep State might have tinkered with evidence to protect members of the political class who might have engaged in aberrant sexual appetites. Both operations are “swampy,” and accountability must be held for all.  

It's good that James Comey and John Brennan are being investigated for being the top operatives in this plot against President Trump. But we all know the big kahuna, the fish’s head, was Barack Obama. It’s time to investigate; enough with concerns about norms and optics games. The latter of which is a weak sauce DC talking point to protect politicians. The former was shattered by Democrats long ago, obliterated by the Russian collusion delusion that’s infected half the country. Lastly, James Clapper also deserves to be investigated. He didn't even believe the Steele Dossier.