Bombshell Report Debunks 2016 Russia Narratives, Trump vs. Dems on DOJ Nominees: AM Update 7/24

Summary

The Megyn Kelly Show: Episode Summary Episode Title: Bombshell Report Debunks 2016 Russia Narratives, Trump vs. Dems on DOJ Nominees: AM Update 7/24
Release Date: July 24, 2025
Host: Megyn Kelly
Produced by: SiriusXM

---

1. Overview of the AM Update

Megyn Kelly begins the morning show by highlighting two major topics:

• Tulsi Gabbard’s Declassification of Intelligence Documents: Allegations that the Obama administration manipulated intelligence to fabricate the Russia interference narrative in the 2016 election.
• Stalling of President Trump’s DOJ Nominees: Examination of how Democratic opposition is hindering Trump's appointments within the Department of Justice.

---

2. Tulsi Gabbard’s Disclosure on Russiagate

Declassification of New Intelligence Reports

Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, reveals the declassification of previously unreleased documents that challenge the established Russiagate narrative.

• Key Revelations:
  • The 2020 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence report suggests President Obama and his top officials deliberately used unreliable intelligence to portray Russia as interfering in the 2016 election to undermine Donald Trump.
  • A significant Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) from 2017 purported that Vladimir Putin favored Trump to expedite his election victory.

Notable Quote:

"Then CIA Director Brennan and the intelligence community mischaracterized intelligence and relied on dubious substandard sources to create a contrived false narrative that Putin developed a clear preference for Trump."
— Tulsi Gabbard [03:18]

Analysis of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA):

• The ICA concluded that Russian cyber activities weren’t sufficient to alter election results.
• Previous conclusions indicated Russia’s interference was similar to minor past election meddling.
• A Presidential Daily Brief from December 2016, which stated that Russian actors didn’t impact vote counts, was pulled under new directives just before publication.

---

3. Claims Against the Obama Administration

Manufacturing Intelligence to Undermine Trump

Gabbard asserts that the Obama administration, under John Brennan’s leadership, manipulated intelligence to disadvantage Trump.

Notable Quotes:

"The intelligence community excluded significant intelligence and ignored or selectively quoted reliable intelligence that contradicted the intelligence community assessment's key findings on Putin's alleged support for Trump."
— Tulsi Gabbard [03:18]

"The production of the ICA was subject to unusual directives from the President and senior political appointees, and particularly the Director of the CIA, John Brennan."
— Megyn Kelly [05:31]

Evidence Highlights:

• The ICA's key judgment about Putin’s preference for Trump was based on minimal and questionable sources.
• Two CIA analysts informed Brennan there was no direct evidence of Putin’s aspiration to elect Trump, but Brennan dismissed their concerns.
• The Steele dossier, widely criticized and debunked, was used to support the ICA's conclusions despite lacking credibility.

---

4. Allegations of Suppressed Information on Hillary Clinton

Russia’s Withheld Damaging Data

The declassified report details extensive damaging information Russia allegedly possessed on Hillary Clinton, which was never fully disclosed.

Highlights Include:

• Secret meetings between Hillary Clinton and U.S. religious organizations, suggesting quid pro quo arrangements for campaign support.
• High-level DNC emails indicating Clinton's emotional instability and the use of tranquilizers.
• An email suggesting former Attorney General Loretta Lynch was coordinating with the Clinton campaign and undermining FBI investigations.

Notable Quote:

"The report goes into great detail about the information that Russia and Putin had on Hillary Clinton, which included possible criminal acts like secret meetings with multiple named U.S. religious organizations..."
— Tulsi Gabbard [07:47]

---

5. Department of Justice’s Response

Formation of a Special Strike Force

In response to Gabbard’s disclosures, the Department of Justice announced the creation of a strike force to evaluate the evidence and determine potential legal actions, which may include investigations into former President Obama.

---

6. The Battle Over Trump’s DOJ Nominees

Senate Slowdown and Judicial Interference

The episode delves into the resistance faced by President Trump’s nominees for U.S. Attorney positions, primarily obstructed by Democratic senators and judicial overreach.

Key Points:

• New Jersey U.S. Attorney Nomination:
  • Interim US Attorney Alina Haba’s term is nearing its end. With Senate confirmation stalled, District Judge Renee Marie Blum appointed Deputy Desiree Lee Grace as her successor.
  • The DOJ responded by removing Grace, citing intolerance for "rogue judges."

Notable Quotes:

"The President has the right to control who's in his executive branch... I think that the judges can't win this battle given the way the Supreme Court is looking at a lot of the removal statutes."
— Will Chamberlain [13:38]

California U.S. Attorney Nomination:

• Bill Asali’s nomination is blocked by California’s Democratic senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla despite his effective handling of immigration enforcement.
• The "blue slip" tradition, giving individual senators veto power over appointments in their state, is cited as a reason for the obstruction.

Notable Quote:

"U.S. senators... condemning the firing... The court will have no comment."
— Megyn Kelly [08:36]

---

7. Future Implications and Potential Outcomes

Possible Resolutions and Administrative Strategies

Will Chamberlain discusses potential pathways for restoring Haba and other nominees:

• Reappointment Strategies: Utilizing the Federal Vacancies Reform Act to reappoint interim attorneys.
• Judicial vs. Executive Authority: Anticipates a showdown where the Trump administration asserts executive control over appointments, likely prevailing based on current Supreme Court trends.

Notable Quote:

"If the Democrats are going to act like this, then John Thune shouldn't just keep every senator in Washington, D.C... That's the way the cookie crumbles."
— Will Chamberlain [17:10]

Senate Dynamics:

• Majority Leader Thune urges senators to work through early August to resolve nominations.
• Emphasis on Republicans in the Senate expediting the confirmation process, potentially overriding traditional protocols like the blue slip.

---

8. Conclusion

Megyn Kelly wraps up the AM Update by reiterating the critical nature of these revelations and the ongoing political struggles affecting the Trump administration’s ability to function efficiently. She encourages listeners to stay informed and tuned for further developments on these pivotal issues.

---

Note: This summary excludes all advertisement segments and focuses solely on the substantive discussions and interviews presented in the episode.

Transcript

[Megyn Kelly]

Good morning everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. It's Thursday, July 24, 2025 and this is your AM update.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

The implications of this are far reaching and have to do with the integrity of our Democratic Republic.

[Megyn Kelly]

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassifying more documents supporting her claim that President Obama and key staffers knowingly relied on bad intel to create the Russia interference narrative.

[Will Chamberlain]

And it's very clear that the Democrats are taking their sweet time. In all and this really is is cramping the ability of President Trump to.

[Megyn Kelly]

Run the government from Senate slow walking to judicial curveballs, how the left is working to derail President Trump's nominees. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update. Celebrate Independence Day with an epic July 4th sale. Stock up on supplements from brickhouse nutrition.com and save big 25% off everything with code FIREWORKS25 you can get lean, their number one weight loss supplement packed with natural studied ingredients. No injections, just real results they say can help you slim down in time for summer. Or try Field of Greens, the superfood drink so powerful they guarantee your doctor will notice your boosted health or they will give you your money back. Collagen peptides are another favorite for glowing skin and hair. Beauty experts say collagen can be the fountain of youth for skin and hair. From weight loss to wellness, Brickhouse Nutrition has it all. This sale is huge, but it's only here for a few days and products will sell out. Don't wait. Head to brickhouse nutrition.com, use fireworks25 for 25% off. Go big this Fourth of July. Brickhouse nutrition.com stock up now. The Russiagate document dump continues. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday declassifying a Prediction previously unreleased September 2020 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Report Director Gabbard saying this report further outlines a plot by President Obama and other high ranking officials in his administration to manufacture the 2016 Russia interference narrative with intelligence they knew to be unreliable, all in order to undermine the incoming Trump administration. The newly released report analyzing the trade craft used to compile a 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, or ICA at the direction of President Obama. It concluded, quote, we also assess Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President Elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. This newly released 2020 intelligence report finding many serious flaws with the intelligence and methods used to craft that ica launched by then Chairman of the committee, Republican Congressman Devin Nunes. It was finished only after Democrats regained the majority in 2019 and under the new chairman, Democrat Adam Schiff. Surprisingly, it never saw the light of day until now. On Wednesday, Director Gabbard presenting to reporters some of what that buried report determined.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

Then CIA Director Brennan and the intelligence community mischaracterized intelligence and relied on dubious substandard sources to create a contrived false narrative that Putin developed a quote, unquote, clear preference for Trump. Brennan and the IC misled lawmakers by referencing the debunked Steele dossier to assess, quote, unquote, Russia's plans and intentions, falsely suggesting that this dossier had intelligence value when he knew that it was discredited. The intelligence community excluded significant intelligence and ignored or selectively quoted reliable intelligence that contradicted the intelligence community assessment's key findings on Putin's alleged support for Trump. The implications of this are far reaching and have to do with the integrity of our Democratic Republic. It has to do with an outgoing President taking action to manufacture intelligence to undermine and usurp the will of the American people in that election and launch what would be a years long coup against the incoming President of the United States, Donald Trump.

[Megyn Kelly]

This latest disclosure providing even more color to the bombshell drop late last week which placed President Obama directly at the center of the plot to subvert the Trump administration in December 2016. The intel community was prepared to conclude that Russia did not use cyber attacks on election infrastructure and any criminal activity from Russian affiliated criminal actors, quote, failed to reach the scale and sophistication necessary to change election outcomes. There had been several other conclusions drawn by intel analysts that Russia's interference in the 2016 election mirrored the minor interference it had done in many elections prior to Director Gabbard, providing a new possible explanation for why that Presidential Daily Brief was pulled before it went to President Obama.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

The Presidential Daily brief drafted on December 8th of 2016 stated that no Russian or criminal actors impacted vote counts. This document was pulled just hours before it was to be published due to, quote, unquote, new guidance. If it had been published, it would have been briefed to both President Obama and President Elect Donald Trump.

[Megyn Kelly]

Instead, the following day, President Obama ordered the creation of a new assessment with a predetermined narrative that contradicted what career intel analysts believed the 2020 House Intelligence Committee report locked away until now, finding, quote, production of the ICA was subject to unusual directives from the President and senior political appointees, and particularly the Director of the CIA, John Brennan. The draft was not properly coordinated with CIA or the intelligence community, ensuring it would be published without significant challenges to its conclusions. Perhaps the most important revelation from the declassified intelligence report finding the ICA's key judgment that Putin developed a, quote, clear preference for candidate Trump and aspired to help him win, did not meet tradecraft standards and was based on, quote, information that was unclear, of uncertain origin, potentially biased or implausible. Again, they hid this report, finding all of this from us for five years. According to the buried and newly released report, the only classified information cited to conclude President Putin, quote, aspired to help Mr. Trump's chances of victory was based on, get this, quote, one scant, unclear and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from a single human report. In fact, two of the five CIA analysts hand picked by John Brennan told him, quote, we don't have direct information that Putin wanted to get Trump elected. He overruled them. When analysts then objected to the discredited Steele dossier being used to support this flimsy premise, Brennan reportedly said, yes, but doesn't it ring true? The just released 2020 House Intelligence Committee's report also flagging that the Russians had much more damaging information on Secretary Clinton than what was leaked in the DNC email hack, but did not release it even as the polling tightened in the final weeks of the 2016 election, directly undermining the key judgment that Mr. Putin, quote, aspired to help Trump. If that were true, why didn't he release the damaging information on Secretary Clinton? Director Gabbard laying out some of the dirt the Russians allegedly had on the secretary.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

The report goes into great detail about the information that Russia and Putin had on Hillary Clinton, which included possible criminal acts like secret meetings with multiple named U.S. religious organizations in which State Department officials offered, in exchange for supporting Secretary Clinton's campaign for the presidency, significant increases in financing from the State Department. They also had documents that showed the patronage of the State Department to State Department employees who would go and support Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. There were high level DNC emails that detailed evidence of Hillary's, quote, psycho emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression and cheerfulness, and that then Secretary Clinton was allegedly on a daily regimen of heavy tranquilizers.

[Megyn Kelly]

Another damning piece of information the Russians held back was an email from the head of the DNC claiming that former Attorney General Loretta lynch, whose FBI was investigating the Hillary email scandal, was working to control James Comey and keeping a named member of the Clinton campaign informed on what the FBI was doing. In that email investigation. MK Media star after party host Emily Jaszynski from the new media seat in the White House press room asking Director Gabbard if these allegations rise to criminality.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

Do you believe that any of this new information implicates former President Obama in criminal behavior? We have referred and will continue to refer all of these documents to the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate the criminal implications of this for even Obama.

[Megyn Kelly]

Correct.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

The evidence that we have found and that we have released directly point to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment. There are multiple pieces of evidence and intelligence that confirm that fact.

[Megyn Kelly]

On Wednesday evening, the DOJ announcing the creation of a strike force to, quote, assess the evidence publicized by DNI Gabbard and investigate potential next legal steps which might stem from those disclosures. Coming up, stalling in Washington, maneuvering in the courts. A deep dive into the battle to keep President Trump's prosecutors out of power. As President Trump is settling into his new administration, one of the top Democrats in Congress aiming to undermine the Trump agenda is Democrat Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. And according to our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition, Senator Durbin has a new plan, a government takeover of your credit card. Today, Americans have thousands of choices in credit cards, but they say Senator Durbin's plan will result in less competition and less security, which means more risk for your credit and your identity. You can learn more for [e-mail] and you could consider telling your senators to stop Dick Durbin's government takeover of your credit card. Because before it's too late. President Trump's nominees for key U.S. attorney positions facing resistance on multiple fronts from what the DOJ calls judicial overreach and Senate stonewalling. Interim US Attorney General for the District of New Jersey Alina Haba set to reach the end of her 120 day term later this week. When there is no Senate confirmed nominee, district judges are allowed to appoint a replacement. The Trump administration lobbying the judges to reappoint Haba to the position, making her role permanent. As her nomination is currently stalled out in the Senate, however, the judge is instead taking the unusual rare step of appointing her deputy, Desiree Lee Grace to take the top spot once Haba's term expires. The DOJ firing back, removing Grace from her post, saying the DOJ does not tolerate rogue judges. We spoke to senior counsel at the Article 3 project, Will Chamberlain, who says the judges decision smacks of political motivation.

[Will Chamberlain]

First off, it's abnormal for judges to ever use this statute. It's very, very rare. We don't usually, usually because the Senate goes ahead and acts on U.S. attorney appointments in an expeditious manner. But the Senate, even with a Democrat minority, is being extremely obstructionist with all of President Trump's appointees, including his U.S. attorney appointees. As a result, the vacancy statutes and the interim people are becoming much more important. So that's why this is happening now. There's, there's a lot of questions here about what was the district court doing and were these judges motivated by improper political factors? Because Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat leader in the House, actually posted that these judges should go against Alina Haba and they're not. And these judges have an ethical obligation not to engage in any sort of political conduct whatsoever to let political motivations influence their decision making. So if these Democrat appointed judges went along with a Democrat rep to thwart President Trump's control of his own executive branch, that would be a serious problem.

[Megyn Kelly]

Chamberlain says what happens next is unclear, but the Trump administration has several options for restoring Haba to her position.

[Will Chamberlain]

It's not clear exactly what's going to happen next, but most likely Haba is going to be reappointed under, in one of two ways. First, she could be appointed as the first assistant U.S. attorney in the District of New Jersey, and under the Federal Vacancies Reform act, that would make her the acting U.S. attorney. So that's one way to accomplish this. This was actually done already in the Northern District of New York with the U.S. attorney there. And then the second way is theoretically under the statute, they could just reappoint Alina Haba. Like there's, it's not clear that the statute stops Piombani from continually making, remaking these temporary appointments and appointing the same person over and over again.

[Megyn Kelly]

Chamberlain believes in a showdown between the New Jersey District Court and the Trump administration, the Trump administration will win.

[Will Chamberlain]

The president has the right to control who's in his executive branch. Fundamentally, attempting to appoint a U.S. attorney against the wishes of the Department of Justice is going rogue. I mean, how, how are judges supposed to be able to appoint their own Prosecutor? It's Article 3, controlling Article 2. I think that the judges can't win this battle given the way that the Supreme Court is, is looking at a lot of the removal statutes and the, you know, a lot of these independent agencies. The Supreme Court has already made clear that they think the president has the ability to hire for, to fire, for example, the head of the Office of Special Counsel. And it seems very likely that Humphrey's executor, which is the case that created these sort of independent agencies that limited presidential removal powers, that those are all going to go. So I suspect that the President Trump is going to win this battle just like he's been winning almost all of his other court battles that give him the right to control the functioning of his own executive branch.

[Megyn Kelly]

U.S. senators from New Jersey, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats, condemning the firing. The chief judge, Renee Marie Blum, a George W. Bush appointee, responding through an aide, quote, the court will have no comment. A Second Trump nominee, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Asali, covering LA Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, stalled out due to lack of support from the Democrat senators from California and Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla. Chamberlain explains why these senators do not want Assaili to remain in his position.

[Will Chamberlain]

Assaili is doing a remarkably good job. He and his office have been very clever in terms of dealing with the recalcitrants from local authorities in Los Angeles who had been trying to fight President Trump's immigration enforcement efforts. And one of the big things he did was he found a way to work around the sanctuary city policies of Los Angeles by instead of having ICE file detainer requests for criminal aliens, he instead just indicted them for being in the country. And by indicting them, local authorities are allowed to disregard an ICE retainer, but they're not allowed to disregard a federal judicial warrant. So he's found a way to route around the LA sanctuary city policies.

[Megyn Kelly]

One may wonder why a Republican nominee would need the approval of two rival Democrat senators.

[Will Chamberlain]

Chamberlain explains for U.S. attorneys and District court and appellate judges in their states, traditionally, the Senate has a history of what's called the blue slip. This means that a judge or a U.S. attorney won't be appointed within the jurisdiction of that senator unless the senator gives his approval. So it's a way for any individual state senator to have a veto over the appointments in their own state. It kind of increases the power of individual senators, which makes sense as to why the Senate would adopt this practice right there, the Senate, as a way of increasing the power of its members individually, it essentially defers to them on the appointments that happen in their own state. Now, this isn't. This is just a rule and a custom. It's not an absolute requirement, but the Senate tries to adhere to it as much as possible. That said, here, I think that there's no reason to expect that Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla would ever sign off on anybody that President Trump would consider acceptable in these offices. So my hope is that the Senate ignores the blue SIP requirement when it comes to California.

[Megyn Kelly]

Assailee's term is set to expire at the end of the month. It's not yet clear whether judges in his district will attempt to follow suit with New Jersey judges in appointing their own preferred U.S. attorney. Chamberlain says the Senate has bypassed blue slip approval in the past. But more importantly, Republicans in the Senate need to move through nominations faster, even if it means canceling or shortening the August recess.

[Will Chamberlain]

It's not just U.S. attorneys, it's throughout the government. There are presidential appointees that are having to wait very, very patiently in line. It's very clear that the Democrats are taking their sweet time enforcing the maximum amount of debate on all these appointments, and it really is cramping the ability of President Trump to run the government. The Senate needs to stay. If Democrats are going to act like this, then John Thune shouldn't just keep every senator in Washington, D.C. he should keep them there and have them be voting day and night, weekends. They should all. If the Democrats want this to be the way it works, then the Senate needs to just stay in D.C. apologies for those who have vacations that they're going to miss, but that's, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

[Megyn Kelly]

Majority Leader Thune reportedly warning senators earlier this week to be ready to possibly work through the first week of August. And that'll do it for your AM Update. I'm Megyn Kelly. Join me back here for the Megyn Kelly show live on Sirius XM triumph channel 111 at noon east on YouTube.com megankelly and on all podcast platforms.