In a dramatic White House briefing on Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard alleged that Russian intelligence withheld damaging information about Hillary Clinton during the final phase of the 2016 election campaign, claiming it included reports of her being on heavy tranquilizers and suffering “intensified psycho-emotional problems.”
Gabbard, speaking on behalf of the Trump administration, unveiled the contents of a newly declassified intelligence report. The briefing, however, lacked concrete evidence and immediately sparked backlash from political figures across the spectrum.
“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 said. “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.”
According to the declassified document, Russian intelligence allegedly obtained internal Democratic National Committee emails suggesting that Clinton, then Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate, suffered from emotional instability and was reliant on sedatives. Despite the sensitivity of the material, Russia reportedly chose not to release the information, opting instead to hold it for use after what it expected to be a Clinton presidency.
The intelligence assessment further claims that “high-level DNC emails” included content referencing Clinton’s “psycho emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness.” Gabbard accused former CIA Director John Brennan and others of misrepresenting intelligence to fabricate the now widely accepted conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin preferred Trump.
“Then CIA Director (John) Brennan and the intelligence community mischaracterized intelligence and relied on dubious, substandard sources to create a contrived false narrative that Putin developed a quote, unquote ‘clear preference for Trump’,” Gabbard said. In a rare and strongly worded statement, former President Barack Obama condemned the allegations.
“The bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” he said Tuesday through his office. “Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.” Obama further cited the 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio, which supported those findings.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump believes “this matter needs to be thoroughly investigated, and anyone convicted of crimes should be held accountable.” Trump, convicted last year on 34 counts of falsifying business records, received an “unconditional discharge” and avoided punishment.
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity could now complicate any legal action related to these claims. “As for what accountability looks like,” Leavitt added, “it’s in the Department of Justice’s hands and we trust them to be successful.”