In July 2025, Tulsi Gabbard, then–director of national intelligence, strode into the White House briefing room to press the case that Barack Obama had mounted a “treasonous conspiracy.”
asserted
Obama → stride → conspiracy
Days earlier, she had brazenly misrepresented declassified documents to challenge a damning 2017 intelligence assessment: Russia covertly assaulted the 2016 election—by hacking Democratic emails and pushing online disinformation—to sow discord, hinder Hillary Clinton, and assist Donald Trump.
asserted
Russia → misrepresent → Trump
Now, Gabbard falsely claimed that Obama had cooked up the Moscow-aided-Trump finding as a “coup” to “undermine” Trump.
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Obama → claim → Trump
She asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into ex–Obama aides; it quickly did.
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it → ask → aides
Trump and his allies embraced her lies, even though they were easy to debunk.
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they → embrace → lies
Russia’s interference had been exhaustively documented by special counsel Robert Mueller—and by the Senate’s intelligence committee, then chaired by Republican Marco Rubio, which concluded that Vladimir Putin “ordered” attacks to “harm the Clinton campaign…help the Trump campaign…and undermine” US democracy.
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Putin → document → democracy
Gabbard was providing Trump yet another chance to falsely claim the Deep State had conspired to delegitimize him.
uncertain
State → provide → him
But Russian interference was very real—and it didn’t just happen in 2016.
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it → happen → 2016
It’s occurred in every major election since, and Trump has abetted Putin’s decadelong assault, not only by denying this “gray warfare” is taking place, but also by neutering the federal government’s ability to thwart it.
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warfare → occur → it
During the 2020 contest, the Kremlin colluded—yes, colluded—with Rudy Giuliani to smear Joe Biden.
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Kremlin → collude → Biden
Trump’s personal attorney assembled a team of operatives who zeroed in on Hunter Biden’s board seat at Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
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who → assemble → Burisma
To portray Biden as corrupt, they falsely claimed that as vice president, he had forced the firing of a prosecutor because he had investigated Burisma.
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he → portray → Burisma
This charge was readily disproved, but as the MAGA ecosystem kept hawking it, Giuliani hooked up with Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russia Ukrainian legislator who claimed to have documents showing Biden got $900,000 from Burisma.
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Biden → disprove → Burisma
(No such evidence ever emerged.)
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evidence → emerge → ?
Derkach had not yet been officially fingered as a covert agent, but it was known he had attended the KGB’s spy academy and had pushed the Moscow-generated conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in 2016.
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Ukraine → finger → 2016
(Giuliani claimed he had “no reason to believe [Derkach] is a Russian agent.”)
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Derkach → claim → reason
Nonetheless, in December 2019, Giuliani, joined by a One America News crew, interviewed him for hours at a luxury hotel outside Kyiv.
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Giuliani → join → Kyiv
OAN claimed the legislator “confirmed Burisma’s money laundering, Hunter and Joe Biden’s direct involvement, and [Ukraine’s 2016] interference.”
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legislator → claim → laundering
In May 2020, Derkach again boosted Giuliani’s get-Biden operation by releasing audio of calls between Biden and a former Ukrainian president, claiming they showed “international corruption and state treason.”
uncertain
they → boost → corruption
While the fragments revealed no wrongdoing, for MAGA they were ammo.
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they → reveal → MAGA
Fox News reported there were “new questions” about the Bidens.
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News → report → Bidens
OAN aired “Biden’s Bribe Tapes,” a three-part series, and Trump retweeted a post pushing the clips.
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Trump → air → clips
Three weeks after that tweet, Trump’s Treasury Department sanctioned Derkach, declaring he had been “an active Russian agent for over a decade” who was running a “covert influence campaign…cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives” to “discredit U.S. officials” ahead of the 2020 election.
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who → sanction → election
To sum up: According to the Trump administration itself, the president’s personal lawyer had collaborated with a Russian agent mounting a covert action to help Trump win.
uncertain
Trump → sum → action
The Derkach plot failed to keep Biden from booting Trump out of the presidency.
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plot → fail → presidency
But for Trump’s 2024 comeback, the Kremlin again launched a massive disinformation campaign, this time through covert networks researchers assigned names such as Storm-1516 and Doppelganger.
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researchers → launch → Storm-1516
With Russia now waging a barbaric war against Ukraine, these groups initially concentrated on discrediting its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as corrupt and criticizing Biden’s support of him.
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groups → wag → him
On sites designed to look like the Washington Post, Fox News, and other media outlets, Doppelganger also disseminated false stories about the election to US voters: Fraud was widely expected, bribed judges would impede Trump, Biden was close to “losing his mind.
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Biden → design → mind
In one instance, Russian operators created a video that supposedly disclosed a secret anti-Trump CIA–Ukrainian operation.
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that → create → operation
Citing this video, DNI Avril Haines testified that Russia remained “the most active foreign threat to our elections.”
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Russia → cite → elections
In July 2024, the Justice Department announced it had seized US domains and taken down 968 X accounts that were part of a Russian AI bot farm.
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that → announce → farm
Intelligence officials told reporters that Moscow was engaged in a “whole-of-government approach to influence the election.”
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Moscow → tell → election
A DNI fact sheet noted Russia was working to “target specific voter demographics, promote divisive narratives, and denigrate specific politicians” and aimed to “covertly use social media to amplify narratives to sway…swing states.”
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Russia → note → states
Biden officials did not explicitly state Putin was interfering to assist Trump—they didn’t want to be accused of influencing the election themselves—but that was clearly Moscow’s intent.
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that → state → election
And hard evidence soon emerged.
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evidence → emerge → ?
Two months later, the Justice Department revealed it had seized 32 domains used by Doppelganger to “covertly spread Russian government propaganda” smearing Ukraine and “influencing voters.”
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it → reveal → voters
An internal memo from the operation disclosed by prosecutors said it “makes sense for Russia to put a maximum effort” into backing Republicans and Trump voters.
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Russia → disclose → Republicans
In another case, employees of Kremlin propaganda outlet RT were charged with funneling millions via a US media company to prominent right-wingers such as Benny Johnson, who produced videos and podcasts bolstering pro-Trump themes.
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who → charge → themes
These MAGA influencers insisted that they knew nothing about Russian funding.
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they → insist → funding
But Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor-in-chief, later boasted that the project had “created a large network” with “electorally significant influence.”
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project → boast → influence
…and 29 more, not listed.
