Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on 13 August 2025 declassified a series of emails dated 22 December 2016 that underpin the drafting of the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. The correspondence shows then-DNI James Clapper telling senior officials that the report had to be finished on an accelerated schedule, even if that meant departing from “normal” intelligence-community procedures. In the initial message, National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers informed Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey that his analysts did not have “sufficient access” to underlying evidence and “enough time” to be “absolutely confident” in their judgments. Rogers warned that some of his staff were “not fully comfortable” endorsing conclusions they had not been able to verify. Clapper replied that additional time was “not negotiable,” stressing the need for the CIA, NSA, FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence to present a united front—“that’s OUR story, and we’re sticking to it.” He wrote that the agencies might have to “compromise on our ‘normal’ modalities” because of the compressed timetable and described the project as a “team sport.” Gabbard said the emails support her contention that the 2017 ICA was politicized at the direction of the Obama White House, noting that the order to produce the assessment originated with the president earlier that month. She added that the documents will be forwarded to the Justice Department for possible further action. Clapper and other former officials have not publicly responded to the release.