The report, declassified by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, accuses top intelligence officials of “glossing over” evidence that Putin may have expected Hillary Clinton to win, contradicting the original assessment that Russia had a “clear preference” for Trump.
🚨 BREAKING: DNI Tulsi Gabbard just released declassified files showing the Obama Intelligence Community *DID NOT* have any proof that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help elect Trump in 2016, but published intelligence suggesting otherwise – AT THE REQUEST OF OBAMA.… pic.twitter.com/Qa1OJFkUOD
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 23, 2025
A newly declassified House Intelligence Committee report alleges that the Obama-era intelligence assessment on Russian election meddling used the discredited Steele Dossier to underpin its conclusion that Vladimir Putin aspired to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election, directly challenging the testimony of officials like CIA Director John Brennan, who denied that had happened.
The report, released Thursday by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard after years of being locked away at the CIA, also alleges the December 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment “glossed over” evidence that Putin may have instead favored (or at least fully expected) a Hillary Clinton victory nine years ago.
“The judgment 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,” the report found.
The report’s release comes as FBI Director Kash Patel has opened a criminal conspiracy case alleging the weaponization of intelligence and federal law enforcement between 2016 and 2024 violated federal law and multiple criminal referrals have been sent to the Pam Bondi-led Justice Department.
The 2016 ICA was written at the direction of President Barack Obama and largely overseen by then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, then-CIA Director John Brennan, and the since-fired FBI Director James Comey. It was finished in December 2016, with a publicly declassified version released in early January 2017 and a more extensive classified version declassified and released last week.
Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe had pushed in December 2016 to include British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s debunked dossier in the 2016 ICA on alleged Russian meddling.
The dossier was included in an annex to the assessment. The newly-declassified House report sharply criticized Brennan for allegedly joining with anti-Trump forces in the FBI in pushing to include Steele’s baseless anti-Trump dossier in the ICA.
Steele, a former MI6 agent, was hired in 2016 by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which was being paid by Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias. Federal election regulators later fined Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee earlier this month for not properly disclosing the money they spent on the debunked opposition research.The dossier was used by the FBI to obtain FISA warrants against a Trump campaign official, and evidence continues to emerge about how it was included in the ICA on Russia and the 2016 election.
The December 2016 assessment from the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA concluded with “high confidence” that Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016” and that Russia worked to “undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate former Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency” and “developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.”
Admiral Mike Rogers, then the leader of the NSA, diverged from Brennan and Comey on one key aspect, expressing only “moderate confidence” rather than “high confidence” that Putin had “aspired to help” Trump’s election chances in 2016 by “discrediting” Clinton” and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.
These declassifications by Gabbard come on the heels of the CIA’s recent “lessons learned” review — released earlier in July by Deputy Director of CIA for Analysis John Ratcliffe — which concluded that “the decision by agency heads to include the Steele Dossier in the ICA ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.”