The Department of Justice (DOJ) on July 23 announced that it was forming a task force following the declassification of documents by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) that shed light on the origins of false claims that then-candidate Donald Trump won the 2016 election with Russia’s help.

In a statement, the DOJ said that the task force would “assess the evidence publicized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and investigate potential next legal steps which might stem from DNI Gabbard’s disclosures.”

“This Department takes alleged weaponization of the intelligence community with the utmost seriousness,” the statement reads.

Earlier on July 23, Gabbard told reporters during a White House briefing that there is “irrefutable evidence” that President Barack Obama authorized the publication of a false narrative about Russian collusion in the 2016 election.

“There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false,” Gabbard said.

“They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true. It wasn’t.”

Also on Wednesday the DNI released a declassified House Intelligence Committee report which found that three reports made public by the CIA after the 2016 election were below agency standards, containing information that was potentially biased, implausible, unclear, or of uncertain origin.

“This is not about Democrats or Republicans. This has to do with the integrity of our democratic republic and American voters having faith that the votes cast will count,” Gabbard, a former Democrat, said.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement that “We will investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice.”

For years, Trump and his allies faced investigations and allegations centering around claims that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election in order to boost his 2016 run for the White House.

Gabbard, however, said that Russia viewed then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s victory in the race as “inevitable,” and was focused more broadly on undermining democracy in the United States rather than on assisting Trump.

“Putin’s principal interests relating to the 2016 election were to undermine faith in the U.S. democratic process, not show any preference for a certain candidate,” the DNI said.

“In fact, this report shows Putin held back from leaking compromising material on Hillary Clinton before the election, instead planning to release it after the election to weaken what Moscow viewed as an inevitable Clinton presidency.”

In an intelligence community document released in 2017, the FBI, CIA, and National Security Agency (NSA) said Putin and the Russian government “aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.”

The CIA and FBI reportedly had high confidence in the judgment, while the NSA had moderate confidence.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard talks to reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on July 23, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The House Intelligence Committee examined the agencies’ sources and came to the conclusion that the judgment that Russia backed Trump did not meet the standards of proper tradecraft, according to the declassified report.

“They conspired to subvert the will of the American people who elected Donald Trump in that election in November of 2016,” Gabbard said. “They worked with their partners in the media to promote this lie, ultimately to undermine the legitimacy of President Trump and launch what would be a year-long coup against him and his administration.

According to the report, the intelligence community “ignored or selectively quoted reliable intelligence reports that challenged—and in some cases undermined—judgments that Putin sought to elect Trump,” and didn’t consider plausible alternative explanations.

Intelligence officials also failed to provide alternative perspectives and contrary information, selectively omitting quotes from reports that contradicted the judgments on Putin’s intentions while including quotes from the same reports that supported the judgment, lawmakers said.

John Brennan, the CIA director at the time, has not responded to requests for comment by publication time. He has previously defended the intelligence assessment.

Former President Barack Obama, through a spokesperson on July 22, said that “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.”

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.