Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard renewed allegations this week that senior officials in the Obama administration weaponized the intelligence community to undermine President Donald Trump following his 2016 election victory.

Gabbard, who was appointed by President Trump, discussed the claims Wednesday during an interview on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Fox News.

Gabbard stated that her efforts to release information related to the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative were obstructed by individuals within the intelligence community.

“There are a lot of deep state actors still here within Washington,” Gabbard said.

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“President Trump wants us to find the truth. I want to find that truth. The American people deserve the truth, and they deserve accountability, which is why I’m really glad to see that Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice announced the creation of a strike force team today.”

Gabbard confirmed the strike force will be tasked with reviewing intelligence documents and evidence collected in recent months, adding, “We have more coming and [the team will] determine the path forward to bring about that accountability.”

Last week, Gabbard published a post on X detailing her claims, asserting that former President Barack Obama and members of his national security team — including former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper — initiated a deliberate effort to create a false narrative about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

She alleged the purpose was to discredit President Trump’s victory and create a justification for further investigations into his administration.

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“For months preceding the 2016 election, the Intelligence Community shared a consensus view: Russia lacked the intent and capability to hack U.S. elections,” Gabbard wrote.

“But weeks after President Trump’s historic 2016 victory defeating Hillary Clinton, everything changed.”

She claimed Obama “directed the IC to create a new intelligence assessment that detailed Russian election meddling, even though it would contradict multiple intelligence assessments released over the previous several months.”

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Gabbard’s release included over 100 declassified documents related to intelligence community assessments both before and after the 2016 election.

A spokesperson for former President Obama responded to Gabbard’s remarks on Tuesday, calling the allegations “outrageous” and “bizarre.”

The spokesperson said, “Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.”

Former Obama National Security Council official Ned Price also addressed Gabbard’s comments in an op-ed published by Fox News.

Price argued that Gabbard was conflating the terms “hack” and “influence,” and accused her of attempting to overturn “established facts with conspiratorial fiction.”

In 2020, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report concluding that while there was no evidence of vote tampering, the Russian government did undertake a broad effort to interfere in the election process.

Then-Senator Marco Rubio, now serving as Secretary of State, said in a statement that the committee found “no evidence that then-candidate Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government.”

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Rubio added, “What the Committee did find however is very troubling. We found irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling.”

He continued, “The Committee found that the Russian government engaged in an aggressive, multi-faceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. WikiLeaks actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russian influence campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort,” referencing the release of Democratic National Committee emails during the election.

Gabbard has sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice based on the declassified intelligence records.

She told Watters that her efforts will continue. “I’ll keep pursuing accountability for the American people,” she said.

President Trump has publicly supported Gabbard’s efforts.

Following her release of the documents, he reposted a video on Truth Social depicting Obama being arrested in the Oval Office.

The video appeared to be generated with artificial intelligence.

Trump has also directly accused Obama of “treason” in response to Gabbard’s revelations.

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