US President Donald Trump intensified calls for prosecutions over the “Russia hoax” after Thursday’s release of a declassified Durham report annex alleging Hillary Clinton’s campaign planned to smear him with unverified Russia collusion claims in 2016. 

On Truth Social, Trump declared the 24-page document proves the scandal is “TOTALLY UNDISPUTED” and “the biggest in American History,” demanding perpetrators “pay a big price” . The annex, released by Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, details emails suggesting Clinton approved a strategy to “distract people from her own missing email” by amplifying Russia-Trump allegations. 

This follows July’s release of a House Intel report questioning CIA methods behind the 2017 Russia assessment.

Clinton campaign’s alleged smear campaign

The Durham annex cites emails attributed to Open Society Foundations’ Leonard Benardo describing a plot allegedly hatched by Clinton foreign policy adviser Julianne Smith. 

One July 2016 email claims Smith devised a “long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump,” while another states “HRC approved Julia’s idea” to frame Russian hacking as election interference. Benardo told investigators he didn’t recall the emails, while Open Society dismissed them as “malicious disinformation traced to Russian intelligence”. 

Durham noted the emails appeared to be Russian-hacked composites from U.S. think tanks.

The documents allege Obama administration officials enabled the narrative: A March 2016 memo claims President Obama “sanctioned administrative levers” to protect Clinton’s email investigation and pressured then-FBI Director James Comey through Attorney General Loretta Lynch. 

Durham found former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe shared Clinton campaign memos with DOJ officials in 2016, potentially laying groundwork for investigations. 

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard—who last week accused Obama of a “treasonous conspiracy”, stated the annex reveals “a coordinated plan to destroy Donald Trump’s presidency”. 

However, critics note Durham’s report admits investigators couldn’t verify if the Benardo emails were “genuine,” “exaggerated,” or “fabricated”. 

Senator Chuck Grassley hailed the release as exposing “one of the biggest political scandals in American history,” while Bondi pledged continued transparency. 

According to an Al Jazeera report, Obama’s office dismissed Gabbard’s earlier claims as “bizarre,” maintaining Russia’s 2016 interference remains “widely accepted”. Former prosecutor Peter Baker warned the “evil” rhetoric risks normalizing dangerous politicization, citing Trump’s recent AI-generated video of Obama in handcuffs . With Trump vowing prosecutions, this 9-year-old election battle now fuels fresh Washington warfare .