{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=AED10A7F-41CC-418F-9322-EE29AED8D8A1", "Graham and Cornyn Call for Special Counsel to Investigate Obama Administration's Role in the Russia Collusion Hoax", "2025-07-24", "2025", "2025-07", "Republican", "Senate", "SC", "Lindsey Graham", "G000359", "www.lgraham.senate.gov", "graham", "https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), both senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today called on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate the Obama Administration\u2019s involvement in the Russia collusion hoax.\n\n\u201cFor the good of the country, we urge Attorney General Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate the extent to which former President Obama, his staff and administration officials manipulated the U.S. national security apparatus for a political outcome.\n\n\u201cAs we have supported in the past, appointing an independent special counsel would do the country a tremendous service in this case.\n\n\u201cWith every piece of information that gets released, it becomes more evident that the entire Russia collusion hoax was created by the Obama Administration to subvert the will of the American people.\n\n\u201cDemocrats and the liberal media have been out to get President Trump since 2016. There must be an immediate investigation of what we believe to be an unprecedented and clear abuse of power by a U.S. presidential administration.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nLast week, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard released evidence demonstrating that former President Barack Obama and his national security staff manipulated information from the intelligence community in order to insinuate that Russia was attempting to help then-candidate Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election, including:\n\nIn the months leading up to the November 2016 election, the Intelligence Community (IC) assessed that Russia is \u201cprobably not trying \u2026 to influence the election by using cyber means.\u201d\n\nOn December 7, 2016, after the election, talking points were prepared for DNI James Clapper stating, \u201cForeign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the US Presidential election outcome.\u201d\n\nA declassified copy of the Presidential Daily Brief, which was prepared using intelligence from the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, and open sources, for Obama on December 8, 2016, assessed that \u201cRussian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure.\u201d\n\nThat Presidential Daily Brief was scheduled to be published on December 9, 2016, but communications revealed that DNI Clapper\u2019s office stopped its publication \u201cbased on some new guidance\u201d.\n\nOn December 9, 2016, Obama gathered top National Security Council Principals for a meeting in the Situation Room that included James Clapper, John Brennan, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe and others, to discuss Russia.\n\nAfter the meeting, DNI Clapper\u2019s Executive Assistant sent an email to IC leaders tasking them with creating a new IC assessment \u201cper the President\u2019s request\u201d that details the \u201ctools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election.\u201d It went on to say, \u201cODNI will lead this effort with participation from CIA, FBI, NSA, and DHS.\u201d\n\nObama officials leaked false statements to media outlets, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, claiming, \u201cRussia has attempted through cyber means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election.\u201d\n\nOn January 6, 2017, a new Intelligence Community Assessment was released.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:48:13Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=AED10A7F-41CC-418F-9322-EE29AED8D8A1"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9863311424851418, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}