Officials in President Trump's administration are reacting to the Obama-era documents on Russia's influence during the 2016 election that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified. CBS News contributor Sam Vinograd has more.

Washington

A CIA spokesperson confirmed that agency director John Ratcliffe supports the release of sensitive documents by Director of National Security Tulsi Gabbard, a move directed by President Trump. These documents, originating from the Obama administration, address intelligence assessments on Russian interference in the U.S. election and have been used by the Trump administration to allege a conspiracy by Obama-era officials.

The released materials include emails and reports that have been interpreted by the Trump administration as evidence of mismanagement or misreading of intelligence by previous officials. However, bipartisan Senate reports and intelligence community assessments have substantiated that Russia did attempt to influence the election, though there is no evidence that vote counts were manipulated. The differing interpretations of these documents have raised concerns about the politicization of intelligence and its impact on future analysis.

Trump admin interprets Gabbard's Obama-era declassified documents

A CIA spokesperson tells CBS that agency director John Ratcliffe, quote, strongly supports Director of National Security Tulsi Gabbard's release of highly sensitive documents earlier this week. The move was directed by President Trump himself, and it accused the Obama administration of manufacturing intelligence that Russia conspired to help Trump during his first run for office. Let's bring in national security contributor Samantha Vinograd, who joins us now from France for more on this. Thank you, Sam, for staying up for us. I know it's only about 4.30, but still, different time zone. We appreciate you, because we always love having your analysis and insight. So, just can you remind our viewers exactly what these release documents entailed and why they prompted some Trump administration national security officials to be concerned? Because a lot of this stuff has been out there for quite some time. Sure, Vlad. So, for years, ever since President Trump's first campaign, his first term in office, he has referred to the so-called Russia hoax. What he is referring to is the fact that during the Obama administration, there were a series of intelligence assessments, and then subsequently, after Trump came into office, bipartisan Senate assessments that Russia interfered in the U.S. election and aspired to influence the election such that President Trump would win. The intelligence community assessed that in January of 2017. There was a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report, as well, that substantiated those findings. And President Trump has viewed those assessments as detrimental to his own reputation. What we saw starting about a week ago was a deluge of declassifications by the director of national intelligence that contained emails between Obama-era national security officials, and then subsequently, just shortly ago, the release of a classified House Select Intelligence Committee report alleging a conspiracy on behalf of the Obama administration and a misreading and mismanagement of intelligence. This deluge of declassifications is being used by the Trump administration to indicate that Obama-era officials engaged in a conspiracy. While, Vlad, again—and we can talk about this—there is significant intelligence that substantiates the fact that Russia did interfere in the U.S. election in order to influence its outcome. Wow. All right. There is always sort of a process for the release of these sorts of documents, Sam. How did this process differ? Well, I will tell you, Vlad, that intelligence is a snapshot in time. As a consumer of intelligence over, you know, the 15 years or so that I've been in and out of public service, I'll tell you that intelligence assessments are prepared, and they are often updated as new intelligence becomes available, or there are often reviews of previous products to see if they were incorrect, if something was misassessed, if something was just missed overall. What we've seen this time instead is what appears to be a either intentional or unintentional misreading of previous assessments, like, for example, this January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment. The January 2017 ICA—that's the abbreviation—does indicate that Russia was not able to manipulate vote counts. It didn't launch cyberattacks into election infrastructure to manipulate vote counts to help President Trump and harm Hillary Clinton. It did say that Russia aspired for President Trump to win the election and engage in a multifaceted influence operation that included hacking into, for example, email servers, stealing emails, and then engaging in leak exercises in order to try to influence the election. The DNI's current public statements really do away with the bipartisan analysis that Russia did try to influence the outcome of the election, even if they were not able to change vote counts. And that's disturbing. I think it'll have a chilling effect on analysts in the intelligence community who may want to write products that don't jive with what the president's message is at that point in time. Really interesting. Sam Vinograd. Thank you, Sam. Enjoy La France. Have a nice summer. Talk to you soon.

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