Declassified House Report Blows Holes In Core Narrative Of Trump-Russia Collusion

A newly declassified House investigation says that the Obama-era intelligence report that concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help President Donald Trump win the 2016 election was based on questionable information and violated intelligence gathering standards. 

The 2020 report from the House Intelligence Committee, released Wednesday by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, raises significant questions about the integrity of the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) commissioned by President Barack Obama. 

“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 House report found.

The declassification of the House report comes as Gabbard has been releasing documents she says demonstrate that the Obama administration suppressed intelligence showing that Russian meddling did not impact the results of the 2016 election. Gabbard has alleged that Obama officials engaged in a “treasonous conspiracy” to delegitimize the Trump presidency by relying on faulty evidence to tie him to Russia.

According to the newly released report, CIA Director John Brennan ordered three substandard intelligence reports to be published that became part of the foundation for the assessment that Putin favored Trump over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The intelligence community presented these reports as “reliable, without mentioning their significantly underlying flaws,” the House report found.

According to House investigators, the intelligence community’s claim that Putin “aspired” to help Trump win was based on “one scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports.” A substandard report means that it included unclear information, was biased, came from an unclear origin, or was implausible. 

“The ICA ignored and selectively quoted reliable intelligence reports that challenged and in some cases undermined judgments that Putin sought to elect Trump,” the House report added. “The ICA failed to consider plausible alternative explanations of Putin’s intentions indicated by reliable intelligence and observed Russian actions.”

Investigators also found that the Obama intel assessment was rushed and written by just five CIA officers. It was published even though two senior CIA officials told Brennan that “we don’t have direct information that Putin wanted to get Trump elected,” according to the House report. 

The House report also found that the Obama assessment suppressed intel that Putin”preferred to see Secretary Clinton elected.”

Putin kept some material he had on Clinton in reserve, believing it could be useful if she were elected president, the report found. 

“By keeping the most damaging material on Clinton in reserve, Putin was not only demonstrating a clear lack of concern for Trump’s election fate, but conversely, his actions could also indicate that he preferred to see Secretary Clinton elected, knowing she would be a more vulnerable President than candidate Trump,” the House report said. “Moscow’s reserve of compromising materials would have given Putin leverage over a Clinton Administration, but not a Trump one.”

The House report did find that there was credible evidence that ordered cyber influence operations with the goals of undermining faith in the American election system and “to weaken what the Russians considered to be an inevitable Clinton presidency.” 

In recommendations included in the House report, lawmakers said that there should be greater peer review for intelligence reports, that political appointees should recuse themselves from involvement in such assessments during transition periods, and that analysis citing raw intelligence should be clearly labeled.

Gabbard has sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department over the new Russia-collusion document revelations.