It’s been nearly three weeks since Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard unveiled a report with a title that read, “Declassified Evidence of Obama Administration Conspiracy to Subvert President Trump’s 2016 Victory and Presidency.” In an accompanying press release, the hapless DNI added, “The information we are releasing today clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government.”
In reality, the report showed no such thing, and independent analyses characterized Gabbard’s report as “ludicrous.” An analysis from The Bulwark explained, “[E]ven a cursory look at the actual substance of Gabbard’s dramatic claims shows … a nothingburger. There is no actual substance.” Officials from Democratic and Republican administrations urged the public to recognize Gabbard’s conspiracy theories as obvious nonsense.
Donald Trump and his partisan allies didn’t much care. Neither did Attorney General Pam Bondi.
A week after the DNI unveiled her discredited allegations, the hyperpartisan, White House-aligned attorney general announced the formation of a new task force — or as Bondi put it, a “strike force” — that would focus exclusively on Gabbard’s preposterous allegations. Members of this “strike force” would, according to the AG’s office, “investigate potential next legal steps which might stem from DNI Gabbard’s disclosures.”
Those “next legal steps” are quickly coming into focus. NBC News reported:
Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed Justice Department prosecutors to launch a grand jury investigation of whether Obama administration officials committed federal crimes when they assessed Russia’s actions during the 2016 election, a senior Trump administration official said.
NBC News spoke to a former senior Justice Department official who condemned the move as “a dangerous political stunt.” A former senior national security official pointed out that multiple past reviews, including ones conducted by Republicans, found no such crimes.
“There’s no logical, rational basis for this,” the official added.
Soon after, Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor and an MSNBC legal analyst, explained via Bluesky, “[The attorney general] doesn’t tell prosecutors when to open cases. They make those decisions based on the facts and the law. And for it to happen in this of all cases … tells you everything you need to know.”
The brazenness of the gambit is obvious. But as this absurdity advances, it’s important to acknowledge the broader political context.
Late last week, Sean Spicer, Trump’s first White House press secretary, argued that the administration must pursue Gabbard’s conspiracy theories or face a possible revolt from the president’s MAGA base. “If these guys keep pumping out this stuff and declassifying things and don’t go anywhere, you think Epstein was bad, you’re going to piss off a lot of people if they don’t act,” Spicer said on Friday. And while it’s ridiculous to think an administration would take bonkers claims seriously to avoid annoying a partisan constituency, there’s every reason to believe Team Trump is barreling down this path. Even the most hysterical prosecutors understand that while outlandish claims might generate misguided reports in conservative media and might help Republicans’ fundraising appeals, they can’t bring those same claims to a courtroom and expect to succeed. Bondi and her team, however, also understand that Trump and his cohorts appear to believe Gabbard’s nonsensical allegations — and expect action. No good can come of this. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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