Newly declassified documents reveal that twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton endorsed a strategy devised by one of her campaign aides to “smear” then-candidate Donald Trump with unfounded allegations of Russian involvement and divert attention from her own growing email issue during the 2016 race.
The strategy called for “raising the theme of ‘Putin’s support for Trump’” and “subsequently steering public opinion toward the notion that it needs to equate” genuine electoral infrastructure tampering with the Russian leader’s political influence effort.
Clinton approved a plan proposed by one of her foreign policy advisors, Julianne Smith, to ‘smear Donald Trump by magnifying the scandal tied to the intrusion by the Russian special services in the pre-election process to benefit the Republican candidate,’” one of the declassified memos read.
Special Counsel John Durham discovered the information during a multi-year investigation into intelligence operations related to the 2016 election.
🚨SMOKING GUN: The declassified Durham Annex confirms Hillary Clinton personally approved the plan to frame Trump with Russian hacking US election claims — to “distract from her missing emails” and “demonize Trump.”
Later, the FBI will put more oil on the fire.” pic.twitter.com/Sksq6nRdh0
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 31, 2025
At Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) request, FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and other US intelligence officials declassified the files from Durham’s investigation.
“Based on the Durham annex, the Obama FBI failed to adequately review and investigate intelligence reports showing the Clinton campaign may have been ginning up the fake Trump-Russia narrative for Clinton’s political gain, which was ultimately done through the Steele Dossier and other means,” Grassley said in a statement.
“These intelligence reports and related records, whether true or false, were buried for years. History will show that the Obama and Biden administrations’ law enforcement and intelligence agencies were weaponized against President Trump,” he added.
“This political weaponization has caused critical damage to our institutions and is one of the biggest political scandals and cover-ups in American history. The new Trump administration has a tremendous responsibility to the American people to fix the damage done and do so with maximum speed and transparency.”
Last week, Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released newly declassified memos that also showed U.S. intelligence officials concluded Russia did not play a significant role in Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton.
Paul Sperry, a senior reporter for Real Clear Investigations, took to X to report that sources informed him that there are damning text messages and emails showing coordination between the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign aides.
“DEVELOPING: I’m told there are texts/emails indicating Hillary Clinton campaign aides directly coordinated with the Obama White House, NSC, State Dept and Intelligence Community officials in efforts to dig up dirt tying Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin in July 2016 …developing…” Perry wrote on X.
The documents released by Gabbard are the clearest proof yet that officials within the Obama administration had serious doubts about Russian interference, even as they proceeded with the investigation.
The memo, dated 2016, told then-President Barack Obama directly that “Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure.”
While acknowledging prior reports about a possible breach of Illinois voter rolls and failed targeting attempts in other states, the memo clearly states that those efforts never compromised voting systems—and didn’t come close to altering results.
“The targeting of infrastructure not used in casting ballots makes it highly unlikely it would have resulted in altering any state’s official vote,” the document reads. It goes further: “Criminal activity also failed to reach the scale and sophistication necessary to change election outcomes.”
DEVELOPING: I’m told there are texts/emails indicating Hillary Clinton campaign aides directly coordinated with the Obama White House, NSC, State Dept and Intelligence Community officials in efforts to dig up dirt tying Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin in July 2016 …developing…
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) July 20, 2025
The disclosure is a major vindication for Trump, who has long argued that the Russia collusion narrative was a hoax pushed by the Clinton campaign and Obama intelligence officials to sabotage his presidency before it began.
And now the pressure is turning on the people who pushed it.
FBI officials are preparing the groundwork for a possible criminal investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, and others involved in launching and running the Crossfire Hurricane probe.
