Trump Amplifies CIA Review Calling Obama-Era Russia Assessment Corrupt
Trump shares a New York Post report on a CIA review that says the 2016 intelligence assessment on Russian election interference was drafted through a flawed, rushed process.
WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald Trump amplified a New York Post report claiming a CIA review found the Obama administration’s 2016 assessment on Russian election interference was corrupt from the start.
The review said CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were “excessively involved” in drafting the document, according to nypost.com. It described their process as “chaotic,” “atypical” and “markedly unconventional,” according to nypost.com.
“This was Obama, Comey, Clapper and Brennan deciding “We’re going to screw Trump,”” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in an exclusive interview, according to nypost.com.
The post ties a sitting president’s messaging to a fresh internal review of the intelligence work that shadowed his first term. That connection revives a dispute that continues to affect public trust in federal intelligence agencies.
Here is the full post on truthsocial: “Obama’s Trump-Russia collusion report was corrupt from start: CIA review: https://nypost.com/2025/07/02/us-news/obamas-trump-russia-collusion-report-was-corrupt-from-start-cia-review/” on August 11, 2026 at 7:32 AM ET.
This is Trump’s second message released today, and the last post was six minutes ago, and it is not part of a thread. On average, Trump produces 18 posts per day since his inauguration on January 20, 2025. The move fits a broader pattern in Trump’s recent messaging, with three of his 487 posts over the last 30 days classified as Deep State posts.
Trump linked to the July 2 New York Post article by mentioning the source (see nypost). The “Tradecraft Review of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian Election Interference” was conducted by career professionals at the CIA’s Directorate of Analysis and commissioned by Ratcliffe in May, according to nypost.com. The report found that Barack Obama ordered the assessment on December 6, 2016, six weeks before his presidency ended, according to nypost.com. It concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin “aspired” to help Trump win the election, according to nypost.com.
The review identified “multiple procedural anomalies,” including a “highly compressed production timeline, stringent compartmentation, and excessive involvement of agency heads,” according to nypost.com. Brennan’s decision to include the discredited Steele dossier, over the objections of the CIA’s most senior Russia experts, “undermined the credibility” of the assessment, according to nypost.com. The review said primary authors had less than a week to draft the document and less than two days to coordinate it with intelligence community peers, according to nypost.com.
There is no single official document known as the “Obama’s Trump-Russia collusion report,” according to factcheck. Ratcliffe said the 2016 assessment fed special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry, which concluded after two years that there was no Trump-Russia collusion, according to nypost.com. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has claimed “overwhelming evidence” that Obama and others manipulated intelligence, a case that fact-checkers described as misleading, according to factcheck.
For an average reader, the dispute shapes how much to trust conclusions produced by the nation’s spy agencies during a presidential transition. The claims remain contested, with the review’s authors and the president describing corruption while fact-checkers question the framing of a single culpable report.
No date for any further official action tied to this review has been announced.
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