The term “deep state” has long been dismissed as the province of cranks and conspiracists. But the recent declassification of two critical documents — the Durham annex, released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and a report publicized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — has rendered further denial untenable.
These documents lay bare the structure and function of a bureaucratic, semi-autonomous network of agencies, contractors, nonprofits, and media entities that together constitute a parallel government operating alongside — and at times in opposition to — the duly elected one.
The ‘deep state’ is a self-reinforcing institutional machine — a decentralized, global bureaucracy whose members share ideological alignment.
The disclosures do not merely recount past abuses; they offer a schematic of how modern influence operations are conceived, coordinated, and deployed across domestic and international domains.
What they reveal is not a rogue element operating in secret, but a systematized apparatus capable of shaping elections, suppressing dissent, and laundering narratives through a transnational network of intelligence, academia, media, and philanthropic institutions.
According to Gabbard’s report, a pivotal moment occurred on December 9, 2016, when the Obama White House convened its national security leadership in the Situation Room. Attendees included CIA Director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Secretary of State John Kerry, and others.
During this meeting, the consensus view up to that point — that Russia had not manipulated the election outcome — was subordinated to new instructions.
The record states plainly: The intelligence community was directed to prepare an assessment “per the President’s request” that would frame Russia as the aggressor and then-presidential candidate Donald Trump as its preferred candidate. Notably absent was any claim that new intelligence had emerged. The motivation was political, not evidentiary.
This maneuver became the foundation for the now-discredited 2017 intelligence community assessment on Russian election interference. From that point on, U.S. intelligence agencies became not neutral evaluators of fact but active participants in constructing a public narrative designed to delegitimize the incoming administration.
The ODNI report and the Durham annex jointly describe a feedback loop in which intelligence is laundered through think tanks and nongovernmental organizations, then cited by media outlets as “independent verification.” At the center of this loop are agencies like the CIA, FBI, and ODNI; law firms such as Perkins Coie; and NGOs such as the Open Society Foundations.
According to the Durham annex, think tanks including the Atlantic Council, the Carnegie Endowment, and the Center for a New American Security were allegedly informed of Clinton’s 2016 plan to link Trump to Russia. These institutions, operating under the veneer of academic independence, helped diffuse the narrative into public discourse.
Media coordination was not incidental. On the very day of the aforementioned White House meeting, the Washington Postpublished a front-page article headlined “Obama Orders Review of Russian Hacking During Presidential Campaign” — a story that mirrored the internal shift in official narrative. The article marked the beginning of a coordinated media campaign that would amplify the Trump-Russia collusion narrative throughout the transition period.
Surveillance, once limited to foreign intelligence operations, was turned inward through the abuse of FISA warrants. The Steele dossier — funded by the Clinton campaign via Perkins Coie and Fusion GPS — served as the basis for wiretaps on Trump affiliates, despite being unverified and partially discredited. The FBI even altered emails to facilitate the warrants.
RELATED: Durham annex proves Russiagate was a coordinated smear
This capacity for internal subversion reappeared in 2020, when 51 former intelligence officials signed a letter labeling the Hunter Biden laptop story as “Russian disinformation.” According to polling, 79% of Americans believed truthful coverage of the laptop could have altered the election. The suppression of that story — now confirmed as authentic — was election interference, pure and simple.
The deep state is a self-reinforcing institutional machine — a decentralized, global bureaucracy whose members share ideological alignment and strategic goals.
Each node — law firms, think tanks, newsrooms, federal agencies — operates with plausible deniability. But taken together, they form a matrix of influence capable of undermining electoral legitimacy and redirecting national policy without democratic input.
The ODNI report and the Durham annex mark the first crack in the firewall shielding this machine. They expose more than a political scandal buried in the past. They lay bare a living system of elite coordination — one that demands exposure, confrontation, and ultimately dismantling.
The Epstein saga continues as the House Oversight Committee kicks off its questioning of several high-profile figures. Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who investigated the death of Jeffrey Epstein during the first Trump administration, appeared for a hearing Monday morning to give his testimony.
Though the hearing was behind closed doors, members of the committee updated reporters about the progress of the hearing.
'I think it's unfortunate that the Democrats are trying to, seems to me, politicize this.'
"He said that he had never seen anything that would implicate President Trump in any of this and that he believed if there had been anything pertaining to President Trump with respect to the Epstein list, that he felt like the Biden administration would probably have leaked it out," Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters partway through Barr's testimony.
"I have more questions now than I did before going in," Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) told reporters before Comer's remarks. "Just generally, though, I think the Democratic side is doing most of the heavy lifting. I don't think we're learning much from the questioning from the House Republicans."
RELATED: Whistleblower drops bombshell: Did Bill Barr and Fani Willis team up to sabotage Trump's comeback?
When asked about Subramanyam's comments, Comer reportedly said, "I think it's unfortunate that the Democrats are trying to, seems to me, politicize this."
Barr's hearing is the first in a series of high-profile House Oversight depositions in the coming months. Alberto Gonzales, Jeff Sessions, Robert Mueller, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Merrick Garland, James Comey, Hillary Clinton, and Bill Clinton are set to appear before the Oversight Committee through October.
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Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (D) admitted that rival President Donald Trump would deserve high praise and acknowledgement if he succeeds in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.
During a "Raging Moderates" podcast interview released on Friday, Clinton told host Jessica Tarlov that she would consider nominating Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize herself if he ends the war without requiring Ukraine to give up territory.
'Hillary is not serious.'
Trump is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday around 3:00 p.m. Eastern at Alaska's Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
He has referred to the upcoming summit as a "feel-out meeting" to determine whether Putin is willing to reach a ceasefire agreement and initiate peace talks. Trump seemed optimistic about the discussion with Putin, estimating that it has a 25% chance of failure.
Clinton told Tarlov, "Honestly, if he could bring about the end to this terrible war, if he could end it without putting Ukraine in a position where it had to concede its territory to the aggressor, could really stand up to Putin — something we haven't seen, but maybe this is the opportunity — if President Trump were the architect of that, I'd nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize."
She added, "Because my goal here is to not allow capitulation to Putin, aided and abetted by the United States."
RELATED: Trump is optimistic ahead of Putin meeting — predicts 25% chance of failure
Clinton stated that she believes Trump "would very much like to receive a Nobel Peace Prize."
Trump has already indicated that an end to the war will likely require some "land swapping" that would be "good" and "bad" for both countries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected the idea, insisting that Ukraine "will not give land to the occupier."
RELATED: Trump 'bothered' after Zelenskyy shoots down compromises ahead of peace summit
David J. Harris Jr., a conservative political commentator, reacted to Clinton's nomination statement.
"Did not have this on my 2025 bingo card!" he stated in a post on social media.
Paul Szypula, another commentator, wrote, "Of course, she sets conditions that'll never happen like Ukraine not having to give up territory. Hillary is not serious."
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FBI Director Kash Patel found a damning memo written in October 2017 that details the timeline of the probes into twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's alleged pay-to-play scheme.
It is clear from the heavily redacted memo, which was first obtained by Just the News, that the investigations into Clinton's alleged scheme — set in motion following the publication of Governmental Accountability Institute president Peter Schweizer's bestselling book "Clinton Cash" — appear to have been brought to a screeching halt by then-Obama Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates with the help of other Justice Department and FBI officials.
Hillary Clinton dealt with two particularly big scandals in 2016 before her humiliating electoral defeat.
One of the scandals concerned her use of a personal email system for official communications during her time as Obama's first secretary of state.
Authorities reportedly found hundreds of emails on her private system — which was vulnerable to hacking and enabled her to go off-the-books with her official engagements — containing classified information. Eight email chains were allegedly found to contain Top Secret information; 36 chains allegedly contained Secret information; and eight allegedly contained Confidential information.
The second scandal, which was brought to the nation's attention thanks to Schweizer's book, concerned the Clintons' alleged pay-to-play and bribery scheme, where big-time donors to the Clinton Foundation reportedly frequently found themselves materially benefiting from actions taken by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state.
The memo recently secured by Patel indicates that on Feb. 1, 2016 — just days after FBI agents at field offices in New York, Arkansas, and the District of Columbia launched investigations into the Clinton Foundation regarding the allegations in Schweizer's book — the Obama Justice Department indicated that "they would not be supportive of a FBI investigation."
RELATED: Declassified report: Obama’s FBI failed to search key evidence in Clinton email probe
The FBI timeline indicates that 16 days later, then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe "directed that no overt investigative steps were to be taken on the CF investigation without his approval."
The Durham report previously revealed that in February, McCabe — who had a possible conflict of interest and was described by one former FBI official as being "annoyed" and "angry" at the time — apparently leaned on the field agents to close their cases and that those restrictions on overt investigative activities remained in place for several months.
When speaking on Thursday to Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck about the significance of the revelations, Schweizer, who confirmed he worked with the FBI as a confidential informant, expressed his admiration for the FBI field agents who tried to hold Clinton accountable.
"I can't speak highly enough of them," said Schweizer. "They doggedly continued those investigations because they saw how much smoke and fire was actually there."
Despite agents being well-positioned to continue digging — particularly those at the Little Rock field office — FBI leaders continued to set up roadblocks, prohibiting agents from taking additional "investigative steps" or from reaching out to new confidential human sources.
The FBI memo indicated that sometime around March 2016, Sally Yates apparently ordered the U.S. attorney's office in the Eastern District of Arkansas to "shut it down."
'The deep state is really becoming clear right now.'
Schweizer told Beck that Yates' purported order was "highly, highly, highly unusual because field offices are supposed to organically follow leads and investigate, and to have the headquarters shut down an investigation on somebody as important as the Clintons ... speaks of course of the problems of the deep state that you highlighted for so many years."
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Months after Yates allegedly spiked the Arkansas investigation into the Clinton Foundation, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and Eastern District of New York made clear they "would not support the investigation" and apparently provided no explanation as to why.
"The deep state is really becoming clear right now," said Glenn Beck.
The Durham annex that was declassified by CIA Director John Ratcliffe last month provided insights into the alleged effort by former President Barack Obama to simultaneously protect his legacy and spare Clinton from accountability.
Russian intelligence services apparently hacked and gained access to the emails of a number of American government entities, nonprofit organizations, and think tanks ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Among the organizations allegedly hacked by Russian actors was Democratic mega-donor George Soros' Open Society Foundations.
A source shared with the FBI some of the intelligence gathered in these hacks — including purported emails between then-Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and two individuals at George Soros' Open Society Foundations, Jeffrey Goldstein and Leonard Benardo — the latter of whom just hid his tweets on X.
The source conveyed this information to the feds in two memos, one in January 2016 and the second in March 2016.
The first memo indicated on the basis of alleged communications between Schultz and Benardo that former President Barack Obama apparently sought to torpedo the FBI's investigation into the pay-to-play scheme that Hillary Clinton allegedly ran while secretary of state for fear of the scandal staining his legacy.
According to the second memo, Schultz confided in Benardo that Obama "sanctioned the use of all administrative levers to remove possibly negative effects from the FBI investigation of cases related to the Clinton Foundation and the email correspondence in the State Department."
Blaze News reached out to Schultz and to Obama's office for comment.
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For a left-wing advocacy group, certain courts will bend over backwards to block investigations based on plausible allegations of wrongdoing.
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