Fox News op-ed accuses Gabbard of 'fabricating a scandal to divert attention' from Epstein

Fox News featured a scathing op-ed by former Biden administration official Ned Price on Wednesday, accusing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard of attempting to “rewrite history” to deflect from the controversy over convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Price, who served as State Department spokesperson, deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and senior advisor at the State Department, criticized Gabbard’s assertion that senior officials in former President Barack Obama's administration conducted a “treasonous conspiracy” to fabricate claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Gabbard maintains that recently declassified documents reveal intelligence was “weaponized” against President Donald Trump when he was running his first campaign in 2016.

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Price dismissed this as a “rhetorical sleight of hand,” accusing Gabbard of conflating legitimate Russian “influence” campaigns —like propaganda and disinformation — with “hacking,” or tampering with vote totals or voting systems.

Although Russia never altered vote tallies, the U.S. intelligence community under both the Obama and Trump administrations has consistently concluded that Moscow sought to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. As Obama stated earlier this week, then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in 2020 also confirmed Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Price further noted that Gabbard’s claims echo long-debunked assertions contradicted by bipartisan Senate investigations and the Trump administration’s own intelligence officials. He wrote that Gabbard, as “America’s top intelligence official, is ‘busying herself by fabricating partisan events,’” effectively distracting from the unfolding Trump-Epstein controversy.

"The ultimate irony is that Gabbard, who the White House months ago said was working with the Department of Justice to release additional Epstein files, is fabricating a scandal to divert attention from the real one swirling around her administration," Price wrote.

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“It would be a cheap ploy if undertaken by just about any other U.S. official,” he added.

On Wednesday afternoon, Gabbard declassified documents she claims prove intelligence officials in the Obama administration lied about Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. election.

The 44-page report, compiled by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, reviewed the process by which U.S. spy agencies under former President Barack Obama reached their conclusions. It was ordered in the wake of Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016.