Declassified Documents Show Obama Weaponized Intelligence Agencies Against Trump
DNI Gabbard's documents expose Obama's coordination with intelligence chiefs to manufacture the Russia collusion narrative.
Sometimes the most important stories are told not by what we see, but by what we don't see. Not by the headlines that dominate our feeds, but by the documents that sit classified for years, waiting for the right moment or the right person to bring them into the light.
Barack Obama entered the presidency in 2009 promising to be a "uniter, not a divider." His campaign slogan of "Hope and Change" captured the imagination of millions who believed America could move beyond the bitter partisanship of the Bush years. Yet as the declassified documents from DNI Tulsi Gabbard reveal, Obama's final act as president involved perhaps the most divisive political operation in modern American history.
On Friday, July 18, 2025, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard did exactly what transparency advocates had been demanding for years. She declassified a trove of documents that paint a different picture of the 2016 election aftermath than the one Americans lived through for nearly a decade.
What is revealed by these pages isn't a story about Russian interference or Trump-Russia collusion. It's a story about how a president who promised unity instead chose to weaponize America's intelligence apparatus against his successor. It's about the dangerous gap that can emerge between what our government knows and what it tells us. And ultimately, it's about how we got to where we are today: a complete breakdown of democratic norms and trust in our government, not from foreign interference, but from within our own institutions.
Addressing the Critics
Before diving into the revelations, it's important to acknowledge the immediate pushback. Critics in Democratic circles and media outlets like MSNBC, CNN, and The Guardian have quickly labeled Gabbard a "conspiracy theorist," arguing her declassifications overlook Russia's proven influence via hacks and leaks. Democratic figures including unnamed former Obama aides have called her "unfit" for the DNI role due to her "conspiratorial mindset."
These critics make a fair point: the documents confirm that Russian hacking of the DNC and DCCC did occur, and that Russia did engage in influence operations through social media and propaganda. What the critics miss, however, is the central revelation that while Russian influence efforts did happen, the Obama administration systematically suppressed intelligence showing Russia could not and did not manipulate actual votes, while amplifying a narrative that suggested otherwise.
The distinction matters enormously. One is foreign meddling through information warfare: serious but not unprecedented. The other would have been an attack on the fundamental integrity of American democracy itself. The declassified documents show Obama's team knew the difference but chose to blur those lines for political purposes.
The declassified materials expose a coordinated effort by the Obama administration to suppress intelligence that contradicted their preferred narrative:
What the Documents Reveal
The declassified materials expose a coordinated effort by the Obama administration to suppress intelligence that contradicted their preferred narrative:
Before the Election: Intelligence Community assessments consistently found no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate vote counts. The FBI requested assessments be "softened" because they were uncomfortable implying definitive Russian intent. This intelligence was suppressed from public statements.
Intelligence Contradictions Hidden from Public: When the Obama administration publicly stated with "confidence" that Russia directed the DNC hacks, they concealed a bombshell: the FBI and NSA had expressed "low confidence" in this very attribution. According to internal September 2016 assessments, these agencies "lack sufficient technical details" to link the stolen material to Russian actors—yet the public was told the opposite.
After the Election: A post-election assessment concluded Russian actors did not impact US election results. This was scheduled for publication but killed after FBI Director Comey withdrew support. Obama personally tasked intelligence leaders to create a new assessment contradicting previous findings.
The Long Deception: The Obama-ordered assessment became the foundation for years of Russia-collusion narratives. Intelligence professionals were kept in the dark about the Steele Dossier's role until a 2019 FOIA request revealed the deception.
The Smoking Gun from December 8, 2016
To understand the deliberate nature of Obama's operation, consider what happened on December 8, 2016: one of the most damning moments documented in the declassified materials.
That morning, intelligence officials were finalizing a post-election Presidential Daily Brief with a crystal-clear conclusion:
"Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure."
Source: Declassified Doc pg. 44; Memo pg. 4
The assessment was scheduled for publication the next day due to "high administration interest." This intelligence would have immediately deflated any Russia-collusion narrative and provided the American people with the truth they deserved.
But then something extraordinary happened. A few hours later, FBI Director James Comey, the same Comey who would become central to the Russia investigation, suddenly withdrew FBI support and announced the Bureau would "draft a dissent."
By late afternoon, the entire assessment was killed. A senior PDB official sent this email:
"Based on some new guidance, we are going to push back publication of the PDB. It will not run tomorrow and is not likely to run until next week."
Source: Declassified Doc pg. 66; Memo pg. 5
The truth about Russian non-interference in vote tallying wasn't the only intelligence being suppressed. That same fall, even as Obama officials publicly proclaimed "confidence" that Russia had hacked Democratic Party emails, the FBI and NSA were privately expressing "low confidence" in that very claim. The two agencies actually investigating these cyber activities told their colleagues they "lack sufficient technical details" to make the attribution to Russia that was being sold to the American people.
This creates an even more damning picture: Obama's team wasn't just burying intelligence that contradicted their preferred narrative—they were actively promoting claims that their own investigators had serious doubts about.
This wasn't bureaucratic confusion or a scheduling conflict. This was deliberate suppression of inconvenient truth, documented in the government's own emails and preserved for history. When you read the timeline of events, the coordination becomes impossible to ignore: truth suppressed one day, war room meeting the next, false leaks to media on the same day.
It's a smoking gun that reveals the calculated nature of what followed.
The Human Cost of Obama's Legacy of Division
The true tragedy of Obama's operation isn't just what it did to our institutions. It's what it did to us, to ordinary Americans and their relationships with each other. Because of the lies Obama's administration planted and nurtured, America has become more divided than at any time since the late 1960s.
Families have been torn apart. People have been attacked by their own relatives, friends, and co-workers over politics in ways that would have been unthinkable before 2016. In countless cases, people have been completely cut off by their families: parents disowning children, siblings refusing to speak, longtime friendships destroyed, all because of the seeds of division that Obama planted nearly a decade ago.
I know this cost personally. Like so many Americans, I've lost friends and family members to the toxic divisions created by these lies. Relationships that once seemed unbreakable were shattered not by genuine disagreements about policy, but by the poison of a deliberately manufactured conspiracy theory that convinced people their loved ones were either enemies of democracy or gullible fools.
These weren't natural political disagreements. They were the poisonous fruit of a deliberate lie, nurtured and sustained by a former president who chose his political legacy over national unity. The Russia-collusion narrative didn't just dominate news cycles; it convinced millions of Americans that their fellow citizens were either traitors or dupes.
We've created a fractured country where many people refuse to find common ground, where political differences are treated as moral failings, where families can't share a holiday meal without explosive arguments. All this time, we've been told that Trump was the threat to democracy, that his divisive rhetoric was tearing the country apart.
But the truth revealed in these documents is far more damning: it was Obama and his allies who were systematically dismantling democracy and trust in our institutions. Not with the dramatic bang of a six-hour "insurrection," but through something far more insidious: a death by a thousand cuts that was sneakier and more deceptive than anything they ever accused Trump of doing.
Obama's True Legacy
Barack Obama came into office promising to be a uniter, not a divider. He spoke eloquently about moving beyond the politics of division, about bringing Americans together around common purpose and shared values.
But the declassified documents reveal that Obama's true legacy is the exact opposite of what he promised. Instead of unity, he chose division. Instead of transparency, he chose deception. Instead of respecting democratic norms, he chose to weaponize government against his political opponents.
The whistleblower at the heart of this story, the career intelligence professional who was pressured to abandon their integrity, represents not just the cost to our institutions, but the cost to anyone who dared to question the narrative. Their final statement was both professional and damning: "As for the 2017 ICA's judgement of a decisive Russian preference for then-candidate Donald Trump, I could not concur in good conscience based on information available, and my professional analytic judgement."
This is Obama's real legacy: not the hope and change he promised, but the cynicism and division he actually delivered.
The Broader Implications
When presidents weaponize intelligence agencies against their political opponents, when they deliberately mislead the public about matters of national importance, the entire democratic system is at risk. Obama's operation wasn't just an attack on Trump; it was an attack on the principle that power transfers peacefully and that intelligence serves the nation rather than political parties.
DNI Gabbard's Historic Act of Courage
In July 2025, nearly nine years after these events began, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard made the decision to declassify the documents that tell this story. Her statement was unambiguous:
"The information we are releasing today clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government. Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup."
Gabbard's courage in releasing these documents stands in stark contrast to the cowardice and corruption they reveal. While Obama's officials were willing to destroy democratic norms to protect their political interests, Gabbard chose transparency and accountability.
What's Next: Truth and Vindication
While criminal accountability is unlikely due to statute of limitations and legal protections, the real victory here is truth and vindication. For nearly a decade, millions of Americans have been told they were conspiracy theorists for questioning the Russia narrative. These declassified documents prove they were right to be skeptical.
Most importantly, this revelation could be used to build support for the institutional reforms President Trump has promised. If Americans see documented proof of how deeply our intelligence agencies were corrupted, they're more likely to support the dramatic changes needed to restore accountability and public trust.
The path to healing our divided nation doesn't run through courtrooms. It runs through transparency, truth, and the hard work of rebuilding institutions worthy of the American people's trust.
The Choice Before Us
The documents are there for anyone to read. The timeline is clear. The contradictions between public and private assessments are undeniable. The pattern of suppression, manipulation, and deception is documented in the government's own files.
What we do with this information will determine not just how we understand the past, but how we protect our democratic institutions in the future. The declassified documents have opened a window into the real Barack Obama presidency, one very different from the carefully constructed public image. The question now is whether we have the courage to look through that window and confront what we see.
More revelations are expected: Reports indicate that additional declassified documents related to this scandal will be released this week. I'll be providing the same detailed analysis and breakdown of any new materials that emerge. If you want comprehensive coverage with full documentation, quotes, and citations of these developing revelations, consider becoming a paying subscriber using discount button below for 30% off your annual subscription.
Dive Deeper: A Detailed Timeline of Documentary Evidence
The timeline below contains the complete documentation proving Obama's operation against his successor, including direct quotes from declassified materials, specific page citations, email chains, and detailed analysis of each phase of the deception.