MEAGHAN MOBBS: The Left’s Overreach On Russian Collusion Was A Perilous Miscalculation

In the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the American left, bolstered by segments of the media, intelligence community, and political establishment, constructed and relentlessly advanced a narrative of Russian collusion that promised to expose a sprawling conspiracy threatening the very core of American democracy.

However, recent declassifications by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard demonstrate that there was a conspiracy, but rather than involving Trump and Russia, it involved Obama administration officials, including DNI James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan, who manufactured and politicized intelligence post-2016 election to fabricate a narrative of Russian interference favoring Trump to subvert his presidency.

The released documents highlight discrepancies, such as pre-election assessments denying Russian cyber influence on outcomes in contrast to the expedited January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) which claimed high confidence in Putin’s efforts to aid Trump via hacks, leaks, and disinformation.

The latter assessment was allegedly heavily influenced by unverified sources like the Steele Dossier, which itself was paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Tragically it shows how legitimate concerns over foreign interference in our elections, metastasized into a political weapon. The result was a prolonged and hyper-politicized crusade that damaged the country and its institutions in numerous ways. The Russian collusion narrative exposed media corruption, the abuse of power within the FBI and intelligence agencies and continues to distort perceptions of  Russia as a hostile geopolitical force.

This left’s catastrophic abuse of power in the Russia hoax has had lasting consequences. Rather than strengthening America’s ability to respond to Russian aggression, it created a growing faction, particularly on the right, that now views Russia not as a threat, but as a convenient scapegoat in a partisan witch hunt. This miscalculation not only undermines national unity at a moment of geopolitical volatility but hands a strategic gift to Moscow. A revanchist Russia, unshackled and emboldened, continues its campaign of territorial aggression, cyber warfare, and sophisticated disinformation, exploiting the very fractures America’s political elites helped deepen.