Fox News anchor Bret Baier had a strong reaction after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s claims regarding the Obama administration—most notably her allegation that former President Barack Obama engaged in a “treasonous conspiracy” against President Donald Trump.
Baier offered more analysis on the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence sending criminal referrals to the Justice Department for the whistleblower whose complaint helped trigger President Trump’s 2019 impeachment and for the former intelligence community inspector general who notified Congress of the allegations.
Initially, Gabbard sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department days earlier and accused the Obama administration of trying to “subvert President Trump’s 2016 victory and presidency.”
The referrals follow the release of documents earlier this week by Gabbard, which revealed what was called a “coordinated effort” by members of the intelligence community, including then-Inspector General Michael Atkinson, to “manufacture a conspiracy” that served as the foundation for Trump’s 2019 impeachment.
Advertisement Baier spoke about the massive developments against Obama and members of his administration.
“Well, I look forward to seeing that interview again, Bret. You know, one of the very interesting things here is the different way that Hillary Clinton was treated as opposed to President Trump. She received a defensive briefing. It seems that the highest bar was put in place in terms of any information that could be used against her. It also is revealed in this report that at one point in the process, they were looking at investigating her because they believed that she was sort of throwing all of this stuff about Russia out there, and this dossier out there, in order to cover up for the server investigation. So, at one point, they were looking into that closely; but then there’s this huge steer towards Trump with, according to these documents, a much lower bar that is needed for the credibility of the information that they’re going to corral and throw at him, correct?” Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum asked.
“Yeah, that’s exactly right. Now, this is the Trump investigation and this is what they’re putting out here. Separately, Chuck Grassley has put out these files on the Hillary Clinton email case — which are really eye-opening, as well — and a lot of it is redacted. But I talked about both of those things with Comey back in 2018. There was a major disparity,” Baier responded.
“And in the middle of this, you have the Page and Strzok, the two lovers at FBI, who are, they come out with these texts of how biased they are against President Trump; and they’re in charge of the investigation, of the interview of Hillary Clinton, of the BleachBit phones, of the interview and scheduling for Michael Flynn — then NSA director. And you see how this all kind of comes in together in a way that is — in hindsight, as you look at the big picture — really troubling. I think — listen, we are one of the only outlets that’s following this in-depth, kind of on the substance, as opposed to, again, a glancing blow; and I think it deserves that kind of coverage,” he added.
An intelligence official told Fox News Digital that the language in the referral is broad, but that it’s specifically directed at Atkinson and the whistleblower who reported concerns about President Trump’s July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The referrals follow the release of documents earlier this week by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, which revealed what was called a “coordinated effort” by members of the intelligence community, including then-Inspector General Michael Atkinson, to “manufacture a conspiracy” that served as the foundation for Trump’s 2019 impeachment.
The referral is specifically aimed at Atkinson and the whistleblower who raised concerns about President Trump’s July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to an intelligence official who spoke with Fox News.
Transcripts of Atkinson’s closed-door testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, which were withheld from the House Judiciary Committee during the initial impeachment trial, are among the documents Gabbard made public earlier this week.
In March, Rick Crawford, a Republican from Arkansas who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, led a vote to make the transcripts public.
ODNI said the documents confirmed that Atkinson “failed to conduct basic due diligence and willfully exceeded his statutory jurisdiction to mischaracterize the president’s phone call with Zelenskyy as an ‘urgent concern’ to Congress.”
Atkinson, during his investigation, found that the whistleblower showed indications of “political bias” and was “in favor of a rival political candidate,” while still deeming the complaint a matter of “urgent concern.”
The whistleblower complained to Atkinson in August 2019 about Trump’s phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July 2019 and urged him to look into the Biden family’s activities and business dealings in Ukraine.
The president specifically recommended that Zelensky investigate former President Joe Biden’s successful attempt to remove former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, as well as Hunter Biden’s activities with the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings.
At the time of the call, Hunter Biden was secretly the subject of a federal investigation that started in 2018 due to questionable foreign transactions.
Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, and Hunter had a highly lucrative role on the board, receiving thousands of dollars a month. The then-vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.
“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ … I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Biden recounted the conversation during a Council on Foreign Relations event in 2018.
“Well, son of a b—-, he got fired,” Biden said during the event. “And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”
