WASHINGTON — The Obama administration knew before and after the 2016 election that Russia did not affect its outcome through cyberattacks, according to a bombshell document released by the Trump administration Friday.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released more than 100 pages of emails, memos and other records cataloguing what she called Obama officials’ “conspiracy to subvert President Trump’s 2016 victory.”
Among the documents was a Sept. 12, 2016, Intelligence Community Assessment that determined “foreign adversaries do not have and will probably not obtain the capabilities to successfully execute widespread and undetected cyber attacks” on election infrastructure.
On Dec. 7, 2016, then-DNI James Clapper’s office also concluded: “Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the US Presidential election outcome” and “We have no evidence of cyber manipulation of election infrastructure intended to alter results.”
But those findings were suppressed by Clapper and other officials who claimed the Kremlin orchestrated the hackings of the Democratic National Committee, thousands of which were later posted online by Wikileaks, and intervening in the presidential contest in favor of Trump.
To that end, several officials — including CIA Director John Brennan, Secretary of State John Kerry, and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe — met at the White House on Dec. 9, 2016, where Obama began “tasking” each to look into “Russia Election Meddling.”
The 44th president ordered a new intelligence assessment from the CIA, FBI, NSA and DHS, with comprehensive information about Russia’s activities related to the US presidential race by early January, which ended up including the since-debunked dossier produced by MI6 spy Christopher Steele.
