House Report: No Evidence Putin Favored Trump in 2016, Obama and Brennan Pushed Biased Intelligence

A recently declassified report from the House Intelligence Committee has dropped a bombshell on the narrative surrounding the 2016 presidential election. The findings reveal that there was no direct evidence to support claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. Yet, under the explicit direction of then-President Barack Obama and then-CIA Director John Brennan, the intelligence community published reports that were described as 'potentially biased' and 'implausible' to suggest otherwise.

The report, originally drafted in 2020 and kept under tight wraps until now, was made public by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. It paints a troubling picture of the creation of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), a document rushed into publication just weeks before Trump’s inauguration. According to the committee, the ICA was crafted by a small team of CIA analysts under unusual political pressure, with little coordination or scrutiny within the broader intelligence community.

Perhaps most damning, the report accuses Brennan of pushing for the inclusion of substandard intelligence—some of it based on mere 'internet rumor'—to bolster the narrative of Russian interference favoring Trump. This included the now-infamous anti-Trump dossier, despite internal warnings from senior CIA officers that there was no concrete evidence of Putin’s preference. The ICA also allegedly ignored credible intelligence suggesting Putin was indifferent to the election outcome or even leaned toward Clinton as a more predictable partner.

Adding fuel to the fire, the report highlights how reliable intelligence was either suppressed or selectively quoted to fit a predetermined conclusion. Testimonies from Obama-era officials, declassified in 2020, further corroborate this, with figures like James Clapper and Loretta Lynch admitting they saw no 'empirical evidence' of Trump-Russia collusion. Despite this, the narrative was aggressively pushed, laying the groundwork for years of investigation into Trump’s campaign.

Now, with criminal referrals issued for key figures like Brennan and James Comey, the declassification of these documents raises serious questions about the integrity of intelligence processes during a pivotal moment in American politics. Was this a case of political agendas overshadowing facts? The answers may redefine how we view the events of 2016.