Overview

• On August 13–14, Tulsi Gabbard declassified a Top Secret December 22, 2016 email in which then-DNI James Clapper urged the CIA, NSA, FBI and ODNI to “compromise on our ‘normal’ modalities” and treat the expedited January 2017 assessment as “one project that has to be a team sport.”
• Declassified records show then-NSA Director Mike Rogers warned that his team lacked sufficient access to the underlying intelligence and time to be “fully comfortable” endorsing the report under such a compressed schedule.
• Gabbard has characterized the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment as “manufactured” and submitted criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, which is now reviewing the materials without announcing any new indictments.
• Partisan media outlets and some lawmakers have cast the emails as proof of politicized intelligence; intelligence officials warn broad declassifications risk exposing sensitive sources and methods.
• Congressional committees have launched oversight inquiries into the ICA’s formation, building on earlier declassified House reports and CIA lessons-learned reviews that flagged procedural anomalies.