Newly surfaced emails are reigniting scrutiny over how America’s top intelligence officials handled the now-discredited Russia collusion narrative.
Former DNI James Clapper is accused of pressuring agencies to fall in line behind a politicized storyline in the final days of the Obama administration.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday made public a declassified communication that raises pointed questions about Clapper’s role in orchestrating the controversial Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) tied to the Russia Hoax.
The email, which was dated December 22, 2016, was sent from Clapper to then-FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Michael Rogers.
🚨Newly declassified Top Secret emails sent on December 22, 2016 complying with President Obama's order to create the manufactured January 2017 ICA about Russia expose how DNI James Clapper demanded the IC fall in line behind the Russia Hoax. Clapper admits that it was a "team… pic.twitter.com/fVHq9E1no7
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) August 13, 2025
Gabbard said the email reveals Clapper’s aggressive effort to ensure all agencies backed a single, unified account, despite internal doubts.
“Newly declassified Top Secret emails sent on December 22, 2016 complying with President Obama’s order to create the manufactured January 2017 ICA about Russia expose how DNI James Clapper demanded the IC fall in line behind the Russia Hoax,” Gabbard said, sharing a screenshot.
In his message, Clapper described the effort as a “team sport” and signaled that the agencies might have to “compromise” on their “normal modalities” to meet the deadline.
The note was a reply to concerns raised earlier in the day by Rogers, who had flagged issues with the draft assessment that was expected to reach then-President Obama’s desk.
Rogers said he questioned whether his team had been given “sufficient access” to the intelligence and enough time to evaluate it thoroughly.
Rogers insisted he would need to review all materials related to the report before the NSA could sign off as a co-author, explaining that he wanted complete confidence in the document’s accuracy before it was presented to the president.
Clapper’s evening response made his priorities clear: “Understand your concern. It is essential that we (CIA/NSA/FBI/ODNI) be on the same page, and are all supportive of the report — in the highest tradition of ‘that’s OUR story, and we’re stickin’ to it.’”
“This evening, CIA has provided to the NIC the complete draft generated by the ad hoc fusion cell,” he continued. “We will facilitate as much mutual transparency as possible as we complete the report, but, more time is not negotiable.”
Clapper added that the agencies might have to “compromise” on their “normal modalities,” due to the tight schedule.
He closed with a reminder: “This is one project that has to be a team sport.”
Gabbard followed up with scathing criticism of the key players involved: “The leading figures in the Russia hoax have spent years deceiving the American public by presenting their manufactured and politicized assessments as credible intelligence.”
“The email released today reinforces what we already exposed: The decision to compromise standards and violate protocols in the creation of the 2017 manufactured intelligence assessment was deliberate and came from the very top,” she added.
The revelations came as former FBI Director James Comey faced another damaging disclosure — this time from FBI Director Kash Patel, who released bureau memos detailing interviews with Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman.
Lock Them Up! Russiagate is reigniting…
Obama, Clinton, Comey, and Brennan are all on the hook!
CLICK HERE to demand Russiagate conspirators got to prison!
Richman admitted to routinely speaking on Comey’s behalf to New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt, a journalist involved in the Times’ Pulitzer-winning coverage of the Russia story.
According to the memos, Richman’s aim was “to correct stories critical of Comey, the FBI, and to shape future press coverage.”
The memos were compiled during the FBI’s probe into the unauthorized release of classified material.
Richman acknowledged having access to classified information through Comey but claimed he did not believe he had shared such information with the press.
However, he hedged, saying he could only make that denial “with a discount.”
“Richman was pretty sure he did not confirm the Classified Information,” an FBI memo noted.
“However, Richman told the interviewing agents he was sure ‘with a discount’ that he did not tell Schmidt about the Classified Information.”
Richman was directly quoted in an April 2017 New York Times piece on the Russia investigation.
“Jim sees his role as apolitical and independent,” he said. “The FBI director, even as he reports to the attorney general, often has to stand apart from his boss.”
Despite the findings, the FBI decided against pursuing charges against Comey, his associates, or then-Representative Adam Schiff, who has since become a U.S. senator from California.
Schiff, a longtime Trump antagonist, has also been accused of leaking classified information to damage the president’s reputation.
According to whistleblower accounts, Schiff, then the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, had been so confident of a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016 that he expected to be appointed CIA director.
A source who served over 20 years in the intelligence community and 12 years as a Democratic staffer on the committee told the FBI in December 2017 that the atmosphere within the panel turned “indescribable” after Trump’s surprise win.
“Ranking member [Schiff] was particularly upset, as he had believed he would have been appointed as the director of the CIA had candidate [Hillary Clinton] won the election,” the whistleblower said, according to interview summaries obtained by The New York Post.
The same whistleblower told investigators in September 2017 that he had heard from congressional staffers in October 2016 that Schiff was in line for the top CIA position if Clinton had prevailed.
President Trump has consistently questioned the origins of the Russia investigation, asserting that it was politically driven.
Trump says that “Barack HUSSEIN Obama”, and his cabal, committed “treason”.
Trump also says it’s not a guess, we don’t have to wait and see. Tulsi already proved it.
“He’s guilty”, Trump says, and wants DOJ to pursue action against Obama!
🔥ITS ACTUALLY HAPPENING!🔥 pic.twitter.com/7hRxrP3PIw
— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) July 22, 2025
He has even accused former President Obama of committing “treason” for leading the effort.
“It’s there; he’s guilty. This was treason,” Trump said in July. “They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody’s ever imagined, even in other countries.”
Nobody had better be pushing any “presidential immunity BS for Obama or “statute of limitations nonsense” because no matter how they try to twist this Obama, Clinton, Clapper, Brennan, Wray, McCabe, Strozk and Page et al ARE GUILTY OF TREASON. Justice MUST be delivered in the most historic fashion. The passports of all of these traitors must be revoked NOW !!!
Director Gabbard deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor for her courageous effort finding and exposing the most egregious crime in American history. They all need to be executed as outlined in the Constitution or else.