By Greg Stejskal
In late July, Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, held a press conference where she said that a review of U.S. intelligence reports and analysis following the 2016 election revealed there was “no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count” in the 2016 presidential election.
Tulsi Gabbard (Govt. photo)
She went on to say that then-President Obama, his CIA Director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and others entered into a “treasonous conspiracy” to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s victory and presidency by hiding and falsifying intelligence reports to promote a false narrative that the Russians interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Trump.
Several months prior to Gabbard’s press conference, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Department of Justice would be releasing a substantial portion of the Jeffrey Epstein files. This had been a campaign promise of Trump, and the release was highly anticipated by the MAGA base. The Epstein saga was one of the origin stories of the MAGA conspiracy theories, including Epstein’s questionable death while in custody. Was it suicide, as determined by the medical examiner, or was it murder to silence Epstein?
When the files were released by the DOJ, they were a dud. Most of what was released had already been made public. There were no dramatic revelations, and the conspiracy theorists were disappointed and angry.
In wake of that, Trump, Gabbard, Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and others seem determined to resurrect the Russian interference investigations from the 2016 election in a futile effort to show how Trump was victimized by a deep-state plot that never existed. If this is intended as a distraction or deflection from the Epstein file debacle, it doesn’t appear to be working—and it could backfire with the disclosure of documents like the report annex authored by U.S. Attorney/Special Counsel John Durham –who was hired by Trump — which bolsters the original investigations' conclusion.
AG Pam Bondi
Of course, knowing Trump supporters were growing frustrated with the Trump administration’s stalling tactics, Attorney General Bondi promised more to come. In fact, during a February interview on Fox News, anchor John Roberts said to Bondi:
“I saw your appearance at CPAC with Bannon and Ted Cruz, and one of the things that you alluded to—and this is something Donald Trump has talked about—the DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients? Will that really happen?”
Bondi responded: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. I’m reviewing that. I’m reviewing JFK files, MLK files.”
Of course, the administration subsequently clarified that Bondi was reviewing the files and that there was no list. That’s the narrative she needs to stick to if she wants to keep her job.
Since then, the second release of documents never happened. Instead, the DOJ/FBI released a letter stating there would be no further release of Epstein materials in the interest of victim and witness privacy. Trump also posted regarding the Epstein matter: “The whole thing is a hoax … total bullshit.” It’s old news, and people need to move on. This did not placate the conspiracists.
It is perhaps a coincidence that Gabbard’s press conference was held as the Epstein non-disclosure debacle was unfolding at the DOJ—although we were taught in the FBI to be skeptical of coincidences.
The gist of Gabbard’s allegations is twofold:
1. The Russians never interfered in the 2016 election in any meaningful way.
2. Obama and others manipulated and falsified intelligence reports to make it appear that the Russians had mounted a major operation to help Trump.
In support of Gabbard’s allegations, FBI Director Kash Patel has come forward with supposedly corroborating evidence he found in a “secret burn room” at FBI headquarters.
FBI Director Kash Patel
On X, Patel posted: “Now I’m the FBI Director. We just uncovered (the) burn bags room filled with RussiaGate files, including the Durham annex (a 29-page classified appendix to the Durham report), and declassified them. Once again, I released the prior FBI’s own documents and exposed the truth.”
Here, Patel is referencing his authorship of the “Nunes Memo” for Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee in 2017. In that memo, Patel falsely claimed the FBI relied on the Steele dossier to initiate its Russian interference investigation. In fact, the FBI was not even aware of the dossier when the case was opened and later questioned its credibility.
Patel continued: “The same media is calling me a liar again. Maybe this FBI will release more documents directly from FBI HQ … so we can see who is lying – wouldn’t want to deprive fake news of more bogus Pulitzers.”
On social media, Patel claimed the annex revealed:
“Evidence that the Clinton campaign plotted to frame President Trump and fabricate the Russian collusion hoax.”
The Durham Investigation and Report
Former U.S. Attorney John Durham
Beginning in 2019, U.S. Attorney John Durham began a 3.5-year investigation at the request of Trump’s Attorney General William Barr. Barr later appointed Durham as Special Counsel, enabling him to continue the investigation into the Biden presidency.
Durham’s investigation was predicated on Trump’s claims that the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in 2016 was a conspiracy by U.S. intelligence agencies, Obama, Hillary Clinton, and others to discredit Trump’s election victory. Trump repeatedly referred to the Russia investigation as a deep-state plot, a witch hunt, or the “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.” (Like the Beetlejuice incantation—say "Russia" three times and it becomes a hoax?)
Durham concluded his investigation in 2023, releasing a 306-page report (not including the classified annex). He was ultimately unsuccessful in proving the FBI/Mueller investigations were part of a deep-state plot or a hoax.
The report did reference the “Clinton Intelligence Plan,” an alleged scheme to frame Trump for Russian collusion. However, Durham concluded that the emails supporting this plan were likely fabricated—most probably by Russian intelligence. It is unclear how Durham reached that conclusion.
In the annex, now declassified thanks to Patel, Durham explains that a deep examination of DNC emails and liberal think-tank communications hacked by Russians, along with interviews with the authors, led to the conclusion that the key emails suggesting a plot to frame Trump were fabricated by Russian intelligence using real names and terminology from stolen messages.
So Patel’s big revelation actually disproves, rather than proves, the alleged Obama/Clinton conspiracy.
Gabbard’s Allegations
The author of the article, Greg Stejskal
Gabbard’s allegations are nonsensical. None of the investigations into Russian interference—including a bipartisan Senate committee chaired by Marco Rubio and the Mueller investigation—concluded that Russia compromised vote-counting machines or manipulated the vote count. Rather, Russian intelligence agencies interfered by spreading disinformation and hacking the DNC’s emails, which they released via WikiLeaks to damage Hillary Clinton and benefit Trump.
The Trump campaign was at least partially aware of this activity. From the Senate committee report:
“Trump and senior campaign officials sought to obtain advance information about WikiLeaks’ planned releases of DNC emails through Roger Stone.”
The report continues:
“At the direction of Trump and senior campaign officials, Stone took action to gain inside knowledge for the campaign and shared his purported knowledge with them.”
While Trump claimed he couldn’t recall talking to Stone about WikiLeaks, the committee assessed:
“Trump did, in fact, speak to Roger Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his campaign about Stone’s access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions.” (Early in his second term, Trump pardoned Stone, who had been prosecuted and convicted on charges connected to the Mueller investigation.)
Gabbard has referred her allegations to AG Bondi and the DOJ. Bondi has announced plans to form a “strike force” to investigate and present evidence to a federal grand jury—possibly in southern Florida. Grand juries are powerful and invasive prosecutorial tools that should not be wielded frivolously or based on unsubstantiated claims.
Trump and his allies have called for a new special counsel—despite the fact that a 3.5-year, $6.5 million special counsel investigation by Durham already took place under Trump’s own Attorney General.
Sounds like a waste of time and money?
If only Elon Musk were still around to help prevent duplication and waste.
