Putin 'Felt It Was Inevitable' Hillary Clinton Would Win 2016 Election, Intentionally Withheld Info to Later Damage Her Reputation

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has announced Vladimir Putin "felt it was inevitable" Hillary Clinton would win over Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

Gabbard said Russia was so sure Clinton would be victorious, the Kremlin intentionally withheld documents, assuming they would be more damaging to the former secretary of state's reputation if they were released before her inauguration.

The nation's top intelligence officer made the claims during a recent appearance on Miranda Devine’s Pod Force One program.

Gabbard cited recently released intelligence reports on the 2016 election in an attempt to push back on the widespread belief Russia favored Trump and interfered in the election to secure his victory, which was the subject of a federal investigation.

She told the podcast host: "It surprised me that all of these documents still existed, quite frankly."

She continued: "As we’ve learned in later documents that we’ve reviewed throughout that campaign, Russia believed that Hillary Clinton would win the election.

"They felt it was inevitable."

Last month, Gabbard's team began the process of reviewing internal documents on intelligence operations during the 2016 election, particularly any reports related to possible Russian interference.

Among the documents reviewed was a 2020 report from the House Intelligence Committee, which found Russian intelligence may have obtained information suggesting the Democratic nominee had been "placed on a daily regimen of 'heavy tranquilizers'… while afraid of losing."

The report further claimed Clinton's alleged prescription was based on "psycho-emotional problems, including uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness."

Gabbard argued the information would have been leaked if Russia's goal was to elevate Trump while discrediting Clinton.

She said: "If Russia aspired to help Trump get elected, which is what the manufactured January 2017 intelligence community assessment says with high confidence, according to (former CIA Director John Brennan) and (former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper), then Putin would have released the most damaging information and emails to help President Trump.

"It was intentionally withheld and not released because they assumed that Hillary Clinton would win that election, and their plan, (was to) wait until maybe days or weeks before her inauguration to release these documents."

The 2020 House Intelligence Committee report also found Putin's "principal motivations in these operations were to undermine faith in the U.S. democratic process."

On how the public has reckoned with reports of Russia interfering in the 2016 election, Gabbard said: "The American people, I think, have been, and our republic has been, most harmed by this.

"Of course, President Trump went through hell and his family because of this Russia hoax that was manufactured by President (Barack) Obama and his administration."

Both Clapper and Brennan have pushed back on Gabbard's claims and accused her of spreading "patently false" allegations about their involvement in the so-called "Russian hoax" probe.

The former CIA director and former Director of National Intelligence pointed to a 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, which stated the panel "heard consistently that analysts were under no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions."

Interest in the "Russian hoax" investigation has recently been revived after Trump accused Obama of treason amid intense scrutiny of his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Critics have accused Trump of attacking his political enemies in a desperate attempt to distract from outrage over Epstein and his well-documented friendship with the late convicted pedophile.