On Wednesday, National Intelligence Director Tarshi Gabbard shared a whistleblower account that highlights the pressures exerted by the Obama-era Intelligence Director. This involves allegations that they called on Russia to manipulate ratings during the 2016 presidential election to aid Donald Trump.
“I felt the pressure to alter my viewpoint,” the whistleblower, who rose to the rank of senior intelligence analyst, stated. A document Gabbard provided as evidence supports claims of a “rebellious conspiracy” involving some officials aiming to undermine Trump’s victory in 2016.
The analyst had previously been involved in the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which concluded that “foreign enemies did not employ cyberattacks on the election infrastructure to alter the US presidential election outcome.” This was, perhaps, a significant stance, especially as the analysis progressed towards a revised ICA.
The 2017 ICA, however, leaned on dubious Steele documents, asserting that the Kremlin orchestrated a hack of the Democratic National Committee emails to intervene in favor of Trump.
“If you saw it, you’d agree,” the analyst recalled a supervisor stating during their early January 2017 review of a new report on alternative ratings.
Furthermore, the supervisor insisted, “There’s no way that Putin has anything to do with Trump. You really need to trust me on this.”
When the whistleblower declined to endorse the revised rating, the visibly irritated supervisor replied, “We need to align with these decisions so the DIA can proceed!”
“I clearly remember this conversation,” the whistleblower documented.
“I recognized I was going against the National Intelligence Office’s directive (to misrepresent my opinion to the DIA) according to Intelligence Community Standards, Trade, and Ethics.”
Notably, the DIA did not take part in the 2017 ICA being produced by the CIA, FBI, or the National Security Agency (NSA).
Records indicate that whistleblowers made multiple attempts to voice concerns regarding the information presented in the 2017 ICA, which included input from an Intelligence Community Inspector as well as insights from former special advisor Sen. John Durham and Mark Warner (D-Va.).
“Whistleblowers have risked their well-being to protect our Democratic Republic and uncover the truth about how President Obama directed the Russian president in 2016 to fabricate an intelligence assessment that spread misinformation favoring Trump’s narrative,” Gabbard mentioned in her statement.
She added, “By doing so, the Obama administration sought to invalidate the 2016 election and President Trump’s presidency, undermining the will of the American populace. This was essentially an attempt at a coup against President Trump and the American people. Thanks to this individual and other courageous whistleblowers, Americans are getting a clearer picture of the dangerous ramifications of weaponized intelligence.”
“Truth and accountability are vital to making sure this doesn’t happen again.”
