In a development that could reignite long-simmering questions about the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, the Department of Justice reportedly confirmed it has received a criminal referral from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
The referral, first reported by Fox News Digital on Monday, calls for an investigation into Obama-era officials who allegedly politicized and manipulated intelligence surrounding then-candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The documents, declassified by Gabbard last week, suggest that intelligence under the Obama administration was selectively used — or even fabricated — to justify surveillance and political targeting of the Trump campaign.
“Manufactured and politicized intelligence” is at the core of Gabbard’s referral, which accuses former senior officials of weaponizing national security tools against a political opponent.
Although the DOJ has not disclosed the scope of any future investigation, the confirmation alone marks a potential shift in how the federal government might examine what Trump and many of his supporters have long called the “Russia hoax.”
The Trump campaign, under siege for years from claims of Kremlin coordination, has always maintained that the allegations were politically motivated.
President Trump himself has consistently condemned the investigations as an orchestrated attempt by the intelligence community to undermine a democratically elected administration.
BREAKING NEWS: @TulsiGabbard just handed @realDonaldTrump's @TheJusticeDept the receipts to launch a criminal investigation on bombshell claims @BarackObama admin 'manufactured' Russian collusion hoax. pic.twitter.com/FdPjRvshRc
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 21, 2025
Gabbard’s release of the declassified documents came just days before Trump stirred controversy by posting an AI-generated video depicting the fictional arrest of former President Barack Obama by the FBI.
The clip, showing Obama handcuffed and kneeling in the Oval Office as a grinning Trump looks on, is the latest in a string of provocative posts from the former president. It landed amid renewed scrutiny of Trump’s record, including his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Still, Trump’s defenders argue that the true scandal is not what his campaign may or may not have done in 2016, but rather what federal agencies under the previous administration did in response.
The criminal referral from Gabbard now puts that argument squarely back in the public spotlight.
It also reopens debate over the findings of the 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee report, which concluded that Russia did attempt to interfere in the 2016 election.
Yet critics of that report have long contended that it conflated contact with collusion and failed to demonstrate any conspiracy. Trump’s allies point to the absence of charges directly linking the campaign to a coordinated effort with Russian operatives as evidence that the case was overblown from the beginning.
With the DOJ now in receipt of Gabbard’s referral, the question remains whether the department will act — and whether it will finally answer concerns that key national security institutions were used as political weapons under President Obama’s watch.
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