Until recently, it seemed clear that former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan had engaged in a sickening conspiracy, first to create a false “Russian collusion” narrative in order to spy on candidate Donald Trump and, after his election, to continue the canard to destabilize the incoming Trump Administration, perhaps resulting in impeachment.
But, also, until recently, both partisan actors could rely on the reputedly professional Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) of December 2016, which concluded that, yes, Russia interfered in the 2016 elections so massively, in favor of Trump, that the result may have been affected. As a demonstration of the gravity of this harm, President Obama ordered thirty-five Russian diplomats expelled, a major insult to our adversary by our Nobel Peace Prize winner, perhaps inviting retaliation and crisis.
So, even if Trump were to show that his campaign did not participate in an election skewed by our enemy in his favor, it would have been challenging to show that the investigation of Trump, including electronic surveillance of his entire team, was unwarranted. In essence, this ICA was not only a sword Comey and Brennan could use against Trump, but a potential shield against their prosecution if Trump ever were to unearth their biased dishonesty in Russiagate. “Maybe we were overzealous,” they could argue, “but we were protecting America based on the ICA.”
However, with Tulsi Gabbard’s recent revelation that Obama suborned a false conclusion of meaningful pro-Trump Russian interference, a falsity adopted by Comey and Brennan, this December 2016 ICA is now a significant link in what has now become a strong case against these two treacherous plotters. Given Brennan’s false 2023 congressional testimony, the statute of limitations is no longer a bar to a coverup and lying conspiracy reaching back to 2016.
