Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is in the hot seat over allegations tied to the so-called "Russia hoax" surrounding President Donald Trump’s 2016 election win, according to Breitbart.
The story boils down to accusations that Clapper and the Obama administration played fast and loose with intelligence to paint Trump as a beneficiary of Russian meddling, a narrative now under intense scrutiny with declassified reports and high-profile statements.
Let’s rewind to late 2016, when Clapper, as the nation’s top intelligence official, briefed then-President Barack Obama and his team that foreign cyberattacks did not tamper with election infrastructure to sway the presidential outcome.
Despite Clapper’s clear assessment, the Obama administration pushed forward with a new intelligence report, finalized just days before Trump’s inauguration on January 6, 2017, alleging Russian interference with the intent to boost Trump’s chances against Hillary Clinton.
Fast forward to recent developments, and the plot thickens as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified a hefty 46-page House Intelligence Committee report from late 2020, shedding light on some eyebrow-raising actions by Obama’s national security team.
Gabbard’s office didn’t mince words, releasing a statement claiming there’s “overwhelming evidence” that Obama and his cabinet cooked up intelligence to undermine Trump in what they call a “years-long coup” against the duly elected president.
That’s a serious charge, and while it’s tempting to see this as a grand conspiracy, it’s worth asking if the Obama team genuinely believed they were protecting national security—or if political motives clouded their judgment.
President Trump himself weighed in from the Oval Office, pulling no punches with reporters by declaring, “Obama is guilty,” and labeling the whole affair as “treason.”
While Trump’s words carry the weight of personal grievance, they echo a growing sentiment among conservatives that the intelligence community overstepped its bounds in a way that smells more of partisanship than principle.
Clapper, for his part, seems to be bracing for impact, casually telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, “Well, I’ll lawyer up.”
That offhand remark might sound like a jest, but it hints at a man who knows the storm clouds are gathering—and his follow-up, “I already have,” doesn’t exactly scream confidence in a clean slate.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas jumped into the fray, pointing out the real bombshell isn’t just the allegations of Russian preference for Trump, but that intelligence officials “were lying and knew they were lying” in their congressional testimony.
Adding fuel to the fire, Gabbard has suggested that Obama himself might be facing a referral to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation, though she’s stayed mum on the legal hurdles of prosecuting a former president.
This entire saga raises tough questions about trust in our institutions—if the intelligence community can be weaponized for political ends, as these reports suggest, then the foundation of fair governance starts to crumble.
While the left may argue this is all a distraction from Trump’s controversies, conservatives are likely to see this as vindication of long-held suspicions that the “deep state” isn’t just a buzzword, but a real threat to democratic integrity.