Vice President JD Vance is calling for criminal indictments against former Obama administration officials, accusing them of abusing their positions during the 2016 election to tie Donald Trump’s campaign to Russian interference.
Appearing on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo, Vance backed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s claim that intelligence officials manipulated evidence to create a narrative of Trump-Russia collusion—one that, according to Gabbard, didn’t match the raw intelligence.
“You’re going to see a lot of people get indicted for that,” Vance said. “That’s a violation of the people’s trust, that’s a violation of what our intelligence services should be doing, and I absolutely think they broke the law.”
Gabbard has sent criminal referrals to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has launched a grand jury investigation into the conduct of intelligence officials under President Obama. The investigation focuses not on Russia’s interference itself, but on how U.S. intelligence leaders allegedly politicized the findings to target Trump’s campaign.
Vance accused former officials of “defrauding the American people, defrauding the intelligence agencies, lying about what the intel said.”
Though he didn’t name names, Gabbard has previously suggested that former CIA Director John Brennan and even former President Obama could be implicated.
“I absolutely want to see indictments,” Vance continued. “Of course, you’ve got to have the law follow the facts here. You don’t just indict people to indict people. You indict people because they broke the law.”
However, despite Vance’s claims, a bipartisan investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election and that its efforts were aimed at promoting Donald Trump and damaging Hillary Clinton. The report, released in 2020, found that the Russian government engaged in widespread disinformation campaigns, hacked Democratic email accounts, and worked to exploit social media platforms in Trump’s favor.
While Vance did not name individuals he believes should be indicted, Gabbard has previously suggested that former CIA Director John Brennan and even former President Obama could be implicated. MAGA-aligned critics have continued to argue that the Russia investigation was used to undermine Trump’s presidency before it began.
The White House is fully backing the probe. Spokesman Harrison Fields told the Daily Beast, “Following the compelling case outlined by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, which exposed clear and blatant weaponization by corrupt intelligence officials acting at the behest of the Democrat Party and likely former President Obama, the Administration remains committed to conducting a thorough investigation.”
Obama’s office has pushed back hard on the allegations, calling them “ridiculous” and “a weak attempt at distraction.”
Attorney General Bondi, already under pressure from Trump-aligned factions over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, has not commented publicly on the timeline of the grand jury proceedings. Neither Vance’s office nor the Department of Justice responded to requests for comment.
Watch Vance’s interview below form Fox News:
