Former Obama administration intelligence officials’ past statements don’t appear to match what newly declassified information shows about key aspects of their findings on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
President Donald Trump’s intelligence officials have been declassifying documents containing intelligence findings from the Obama administration on Russia and the 2016 election. The documents appear to contradict past statements by former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey and former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper during television interviews and before Congress.
WATCH:
February, 2018. John Brennan on the Steele dossier: “It did not play any role whatsoever in the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done that was presented to then President Obama.”
That was a lie. pic.twitter.com/DymVLMBhWx
— MAZE (@mazemoore) July 23, 2025
For instance, Brennan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in February 2018 that the discredited Steele Dossier “did not play any role whatsoever in the intelligence community assessments that was done that was presented to then President Obama and then President-elect Trump.”
A 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) found that Russian President Vladimir Putin interfered in the 2016 election with “a clear preference” for Trump. The CIA’s June review of the ICA found that Brennan pushed to include the Steele Dossier in the ICA.
The Steele Dossier was compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele on behalf of Fusion GPS — a research firm indirectly hired by former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s campaign through the law firm Perkins Coie, The Associated Press reported. The dossier has been widely discredited, including by legacy media organizations like The New York Times.
WATCH:
Hey everybody, watch James Comey lie under oath in 2017 about the seriousness of “Russian election interference.”
The memo that DNI Gabbard released proves clearly that Comey was lying during this testimony. He needs to be held accountable for the damage he did to this country. pic.twitter.com/rowA74bs4C
— MAZE (@mazemoore) July 19, 2025
Moreover, Comey asserted during 2017 testimony that the Russians “interfered” in the 2016 election using “overwhelming technical efforts,” saying his statements were based on “a high confidence judgment of the entire intelligence community.”
“It’s not a close call. That happened,” Comey said. “That’s about as unfake as you can possibly get.”
However, DNI Tulsi Gabbard on Friday released a declassified file that appears to contradict Comey’s statement.
The file shows the FBI and NSA [National Security Agency] had only “low confidence” in blaming Russia for data leaks in September 2016.
“They agree that the disclosures appear consistent with what we might expect from Russian influence activities but note that we lack sufficient technical details to correlate the information posted online to Russian state-sponsored actors,” it states.
The memo accompanying the declassified file nonetheless acknowledged “supporting evidence indicating the Russian government directed hacking of the DNC [Democratic National Committee] and [the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee].”
WATCH:
Furthermore, Clapper said on CNN’s “State of the Union” in 2018 that Russia wanted to damage Clinton and assist Trump in the 2016 election.
But a new intelligence report Gabbard published contains declassified information showing senior intelligence community officials suppressed evidence contradicting the finding that Putin wanted Trump to beat Clinton.
The report shows Russia had intelligence that alleged Clinton was taking “heavy tranquilizers” daily, but did not release it.
“The judgement that Putin developed a ‘clear preference for candidate Trump and ‘aspired to help his chances of victory’ did not adhere to the tenets of the ICD (Intelligence Community Directive) analytical standards,” according to the report.
The 2017 ICA directed by Obama found Russia had conspired to damage Clinton’s chances of victory, stating that the CIA and the FBI assessed with “high confidence” that Russia wanted to boost Trump’s campaign.
Brennan “ordered the post-election publication of 15 reports containing previously collected but unpublished intelligence, three of which were substandard – containing information that was unclear, of uncertain origin, potentially biased or implausible – and those became foundational sources for the ICA judgements that Putin preferred Trump over Clinton,” the report states.
One “scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of these substandard reports constitutes the only classified information cited to suggest Putin ‘aspired’ to help Trump win,” it states.
Brennan, Comey and Clapper did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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