Will Putin’s Decade-Long War on US Elections Hit the Midterms?
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.” 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…
In July 2025, former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard claimed that former President Barack Obama had hatched a "treasonous conspiracy" to undermine the 2016 election, in which Russia covertly assisted Donald Trump. Gabbard argued that Obama's intervention was intended to harm Hillary Clinton and help Trump. However, her assertions were easily disproven, as Russia's interference had been thoroughly documented by special counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate's intelligence committee, which concluded that Vladimir Putin ordered attacks to harm the Clinton campaign and benefit Trump's presidential bid.
Russian interference in US elections has been an ongoing issue since 2016, with Trump actively aiding Vladimir Putin's decade-long assault on US democracy. During the 2020 election, Russia colluded with Rudy Giuliani to smear Joe Biden by falsely alleging that Biden had pressured a Ukrainian prosecutor to fire him due to Burisma Holdings, an energy company where his son Hunter served on the board.
This claim was debunked, but it continued to circulate within the MAGA ecosystem, with help from pro-Russia Ukrainian legislator Andriy Derkach, who had ties to the KGB and promoted the false narrative that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for the 2016 interference.
Maga influencers, such as Benny Johnson, who produced videos and podcasts bolstering pro-Trump themes, were funded by Kremlin propaganda outlet RT. Johnson insisted that he was unaware of Russian funding. Despite this, Margarita Simonyan, who led RT, was connected to the dissemination of Russian propaganda. The Justice Department seized 32 domains used by Doppelganger to covertly spread Russian government propaganda aimed at undermining Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and promoting divisive narratives to sway voters in swing states.
Additionally, employees of RT were charged with funneling millions via a US media company to right-wing figures who promoted pro-Trump themes.
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