Gabbard exposes Reid’s dream come true: How Nevada senator’s ‘fake briefings’ call became Obama’s blueprint

By Brittany Sheehan  

Nevada News and Views

Remember when Nevada’s Harry Reid told the CIA to give Donald Trump “fake intelligence briefings” back in July 2016? Well, it turns out Barack Obama was listening. And that’s exactly what happened.

New documents released this week by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard prove that Obama’s team did precisely what Reid suggested. They created fake intelligence reports to frame Trump as a Russian agent. The only difference? Reid said it out loud. Obama did it in secret.

Reid’s Smoking Gun Statement

In July 2016, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid made a stunning demand.

Reid told The Huffington Post: “How would the CIA and the other intelligence agencies brief this guy? How could they do that? I would suggest to the intelligence agencies, if you’re forced to brief this guy, don’t tell him anything, just fake it, because this man is dangerous. Fake it, pretend you’re doing a briefing, but you can’t give the guy any information.”

Think about what Reid was asking for. He wanted America’s top intelligence agencies to lie to a presidential candidate. He wanted them to create phony briefings designed to deceive Trump.

That’s exactly what Obama delivered five months later.

From Reid’s Wish to Obama’s Order

Fast forward to December 9, 2016. Trump had won the election. Harry Reid was heading into retirement. But his idea lived on in the Obama White House.

On December 9, 2016, President Obama’s White House gathered top National Security Council Principals for a meeting that included James Clapper, John Brennan, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe and others, to discuss Russia.

After the meeting, DNI Clapper’s Executive Assistant sent an email to IC leaders tasking them with creating a new IC assessment “per the President’s request” that details the “tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election.”

Notice the timing. This happened more than a month after Trump won. The election was over. But Obama wanted a report saying Russia helped Trump win. Sound familiar? It’s exactly what Reid had been pushing for since July.

The Fake Evidence They Manufactured

The government’s case against Trump was built on four pieces of “evidence.” Every single one was garbage — just like Reid wanted.

The first piece was the famous Steele Dossier. The newly-declassified House Intelligence Committee report alleges that the Obama-era intelligence assessment on Russian election meddling used the discredited Steele Dossier to underpin its conclusion that Vladimir Putin aspired to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election.

The other three pieces were even worse. One was just a single sentence that five CIA experts read “five ways.” They originally left it out of their report. CIA Director John Brennan forced them to put it back in.

Another piece of “evidence” was an email with no date, no sender, and no clear recipient. Imagine trying to use that in court.

The third item supposedly came from diplomatic sources. But here’s the kicker — the diplomatic reporting didn’t even mention Trump. It was from 2014, before Trump was even running.

This wasn’t intelligence. This was exactly the kind of fake briefing material Reid had called for.

CIA Experts Said No — Just Like Reid Predicted

Even the hand-picked CIA analysts couldn’t stomach this fake evidence. Two of the five went to Brennan to say, “We don’t have direct information that Putin wanted to get Trump elected,” only to be overruled.

When they complained about using the Steele Dossier, Brennan reportedly said something that tells you everything: “Yes, but doesn’t it ring true?”

That’s not how intelligence works. You don’t use fake information just because it “feels right.” But it’s exactly what Reid wanted — fake briefings that sounded believable.

Nevada’s Senator Gets His Wish

Reid didn’t just want fake briefings during the campaign. He wanted Trump delegitimized as president.

In a letter to FBI Director James B. Comey in October 2016, Reid claimed there was “coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government” — even though there was no public evidence to support Reid’s claim.

Reid was setting the stage for exactly what Obama delivered: a coordinated effort to paint Trump as a Russian agent using manufactured intelligence.

The Media Joined the Conspiracy

Obama’s team didn’t just write a phony report. They leaked it to friendly reporters. Obama officials leaked false statements to media outlets, including The Washington Post, claiming: “Russia has attempted through cyber means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election.”

Remember all those breathless news stories about Russian hacking? Many came from these deliberate leaks of information Obama’s own people knew was false — the exact kind of disinformation campaign Reid had endorsed.

What Critics Are Saying

Democrats are not happy about these revelations.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement: “The Senate Intelligence Committee conducted a bipartisan investigation reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents and interviewing witnesses over several years. The unanimous, bipartisan conclusion was that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump,”

But that’s missing the point. Nobody is saying Russia didn’t try to mess with our elections. The issue is whether Putin specifically wanted Trump to win. And the evidence shows our own intelligence agencies had no proof of that.

Obama’s spokesman Patrick Rodenbush called the allegations: “ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”

Notice how they keep changing the subject. The question isn’t whether Russia interfered. It’s whether Obama’s team followed Reid’s blueprint to manufacture fake intelligence about Putin wanting Trump to win.

Why This Matters for Nevada Conservatives

This story hits close to home for Nevada conservatives. Harry Reid was our senator for 30 years. He represented us in Washington. And now we know he was actively working to undermine a presidential candidate with fake intelligence.

This isn’t about party politics. It’s about whether we can trust our government to tell the truth. Reid’s call for fake briefings shows how far Democrats will go to stay in power.

Limited government conservatives have always warned about giving too much power to unelected bureaucrats. This is exactly why. When intelligence agencies start playing politics at the request of senators like Reid, they become a threat to democracy itself.

The Real Damage

Think about what this conspiracy cost our country. We spent years and millions of dollars on investigations that were based on lies. Good people went to jail. Our relationship with Russia got worse. And Americans lost trust in their government.

“This was politicized intelligence that was used as the basis for countless smears seeking to delegitimize President Trump’s victory, the years-long Mueller investigation, two Congressional impeachments, high level officials being investigated, arrested, and thrown in jail, heightened US-Russia tensions, and more.”

All of this happened because Reid couldn’t accept that his party lost an election. So he called for fake intelligence. And Obama delivered.

What Happens Next

The good news is that justice might finally be coming.

The Department of Justice confirmed Monday that it has received Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s criminal referral related to her bombshell claims that Obama-era officials “manufactured and politicized intelligence” to create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Wednesday evening that the Justice Department was creating a strike force to assess the evidence released by Gabbard and: “investigate potential next legal steps which might stem from DNI Gabbard’s disclosures.”

This could mean real consequences for the people who followed Reid’s playbook.

Reid’s fake briefing scheme is finally exposed. Now it’s time to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.

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Brittany Sheehan is a Las Vegas-based mother, policy advocate and grassroots leader. She is active in local politics, successful in campaign work and passionate about liberty.