What Russian Election Interference Really Means
We began writing this series many months ago, when Donald Trump once again claimed that there was no Russian interference in the 2016 election. Since his return to the White House, Trump administration officials — from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Attorney General Pam Bondi — have cast doubt on the assessment that the Kremlin engaged in active measures to help Trump win his first presidential race.
The media has dutifully transcribed these Trumpian efforts to rewrite history, with a New York Times headline blaring that “C.I.A. Says Its Leaders Rushed Report on Russia Interference in 2016 Vote,” before noting in a much smaller subhead “But the new review of the earlier assessment does not dispute the conclusion that Russia favored the election of Donald J. Trump.”
Meanwhile, Gabbard alleged this summer that the Obama administration had “directed the IC [intelligence community] 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.” She then issued a referral to the Justice Department, which included a memo titled “Intelligence Community suppression of intelligence showing ‘Russian and criminal actors did not impact’ the 2016 presidential election via cyber-attacks on infrastructure.” Bondi has reportedly convened a grand jury to examine Gabbard’s complaints in pursuit of indictments.
All of this is, in a word, bullshit. As we have painstakingly documented over and over, Russia did interfere in the 2016 to help Trump win — using every weapon at its disposal to achieve its aims. Time and again since coming to power, Trump has repaid the favor.
https://saltypolitics.substack.com/p/what-russian-election-interference