Graham, Cornyn calls for a special lawyer on reported intelligence from Russia

First on Fox: Sense. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked the Attorney General Pam Bondi to appoint a special lawyer to investigate newly declassified information on the intelligence assessments of the Obama administration on Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

Graham and Cornyn’s call to a special lawyer, whom Fox News Digital learned that they announced Thursday morning, comes the day after the Ministry of Justice (DoJ) a “strike force” to investigate evidence, which was declassified by the director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard this month.

Graham and Cornyn, both upper members of the Senate Judicial Committee, did not address the strike force but said in a press release that special councils, who are external officials brought to supervise politically sensitive affairs, operate independently of the Attorney General.

Fox News contacted the DoJ to comment on the special advice request.

The Doj forms Russiagate’s “strike force” to investigate the reported proof of the Obama era

Sense. John Cornyn, on the left, and Lindsey Graham attend an audience of the senate judicial committee entitled “Special councils and separation of powers”, September 26, 2017. (Call Roll Tom Williams / CQ)

“As we have argued in the past, the appointment of an independent special lawyer would provide a huge service in this case,” said Graham and Cornyn.

Gabbard’s declassified intelligence brought up a new light on the determination of the Obama administration according to which Russia sought to help President Donald Trump in the 2016 elections. Gabbard said on Wednesday during a press briefing that Obama and his intelligence managers promoted an “artificial story that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections to help the people American as if it was true.

Among the declassified equipment was information on how former President Barack Obama asked his deputies to prepare an information assessment in December 2016, after Trump won the elections, which detailed the “tools used by Moscow and the actions he took to influence the 2016 elections”, according to a meeting record. The intelligence assessment stressed that the actions of Russia did not affect the outcome of the elections but were rather intended to sow the distrust of the democratic process.

Tulsi Gabbard allegedly alleged that the former administration of former president Barack Obama had promoted “an artificial story that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections to help President Trump to win”. (“Omo” with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson screenshot)

Gabbard allegedly alleged that the evaluation had overestimated Russia’s attempts to help Trump win. The evaluation “laid the basics of a coup of several years intended to reverse the entire presidency of President Trump,” said Gabbard.

Graham, who previously was chairman of the Senate’s judicial committee, conducted the Senate’s investigation into the FBI’s origins of Trump-Russia’s alleged collusion, who dominated a large part of Trump’s first presidential term.

Graham published a slice of documents in 2020 suggesting that the office had a fragile base to open its investigation into Trump and those of its orbit, a conclusion which was then reinforced by the probe of almost four years of the Special Council John Durham on the same question.

Russia was seated on the alleged use of Hillary Clinton “ heavy ”

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard talks to journalists from the Brady Press design room at the White House on July 23, 2025. (SOMODEVILLA / GETTY Images)

“With each information element that is published, it becomes more obvious than the entire hoax for the collusion of Russia was created by the Obama administration to overthrow the will of the American people,” said Graham and Cornyn.

Their remarks follow Trump accusing former President Barack Obama of “betrayal” this week and after the Doj opened criminal investigations on the former CIA director, John Brennan, and the former FBI director James Comey.

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Critics say that Gabbard’s claims have been contradicted by previous criticism by republican and democratic legislators who had access to classified intelligence documents. Obama, on the other hand, published a rare declaration refuting the wave of titles suggesting that he tried to tarnish Trump’s electoral victory.

“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office normally not worthy of constant nonsense and the disinformation that leaves this white house with an answer,” said Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush. “But these claims are sufficiently scandalous to deserve one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a low attempted distraction.”