Former national security adviser John Bolton, a frequent critic of President Trump, dismissed the allegation Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard leveled against former President Obama, arguing she “imagined evidence that doesn’t exist.”
“She’s strung together a series of things that aren’t necessarily related, she’s exaggerated what actual congressional reports have said, she’s imagined evidence that doesn’t exist,” Bolton, a foreign policy hawk, said during his Friday appearance on NewsNation’s “On Balance.” “So, if anybody really gets into it, it collapses pretty quickly, but as a campaign to save her job, I think it actually worked out pretty successfully for her.”
“Whether it succeeded in distracting from the Jeffrey Epstein affair, I don’t know,” Bolton added, referring to the ongoing controversy regarding the administration’s handling of the late convicted sex offender’s case. “But there is, in substance, nothing to it and certainly no justification for the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation.”
Gabbard on Wednesday released a previously classified 2020 House Intelligence Committee report that cast doubt on Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s interest in the 2016 presidential election and his willingness to help out then-candidate Donald Trump.
The report said the CIA “did not adhere to the tenets” of analytical standards and the takeaway that the Kremlin leader acted to aid Trump was based on “one scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports.”
Gabbard said the report exposed “the most egregious weaponization and politicization of intelligence in American history.”
Still, numerous other intelligence assessments have said that Moscow tried to influence the Oval Office race and that Putin favored Trump.
Last week, Gabbard also released a report accusing top Obama administration officials of manipulating intelligence regarding Russia’s interference in the 2016 White House race, citing Obama specifically as well as CIA director John Brennan, former FBI director James Comey and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Trump on Tuesday accused Obama of committing treason and that he should be investigated by the DOJ. Gabbard sent criminal referrals to the department over the report.
Still, on Friday, Bolton said Gabbard’s effort has not produced any new information about the 2016 elections and warned against any criminal probe, pointing out past reports did “take issue” with how the Obama administration handled “certain assessments.”
“But nothing that goes to the level of anything of a predicate for a legitimate criminal investigation,” Botlon told guest host Chris Cillizza
