Since Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents on July 18 that she claimed showed the Obama administration “manufactured and politicized intelligence” about Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in a criminal conspiracy against Donald Trump, Fox News has aired 168 segments about the unsubstantiated allegations. 

Coverage peaked in the middle of last week when the network aired 28 segments on July 23. Over the weekend, Fox's Life, Liberty & Levin and Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo devoted their entire programs to the story.

Gabbard has used her “bombshell” claims, as Fox described them, of a “treasonous conspiracy” to call for the criminal prosecution of members of former President Barack Obama’s administration. The new revelations have quickly fallen apart under scrutiny.

Prior investigations into Russian activity during the 2016 election — including investigations spearheaded by the Republican-led House and Senate intelligence committees — have concluded that Russia did interfere through social media and hacked documents.

Media Matters reviewed segments from July 18 through July 28 about Gabbard's criminal referral or the contents of the referral. The top shows to cover the story were Hannity, with 16 segments; the network's flagship weekday morning show, Fox & Friends, with 15; America's Newsroom and Fox News Live, with 12 each; America Reports and The Faulkner Focus, with 10 each; and finally Special Report with Bret Baier and Fox & Friends Weekend, with 9 each.

Fox's daily coverage of Gabbard's revisionist claims serves a key purpose for Trump: to redirect Americans' attentions away from the Jeffery Epstein files — something the president has demanded.

Trump's rabid base is obsessed with Epstein — the convicted sex offender who allegedly sexually abused underage girls for years and who died by suicide in 2019 amid new charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy — and the story of Trump's connection to the sex offender continues to be a problem for the president as new details emerge of the pair's once-close relationship.

In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed in a Fox News interview that Epstein's “client list” — of high-profile persons to whom Epstein allegedly trafficked young girls — was sitting on her desk, then the DOJ contradicted that statement in July to say no such list existed. Furthermore, The Wall Street Journal reported that the DOJ told Trump back in May that he is in the Epstein files. The DOJ subsequently denied the accusation.

Some of Trump's most ardent supporters have cried foul. Right-leaning podcasters are turning on the president over his administration's handling of the entire saga, and more generally, right-wing media are in disarray over developments in the case undermining the administration's credibility. Fox's attempt to sweep Epstein under the rug by way of boosting bogus claims against Obama-era administration officials makes the network complicit in Trump's efforts to quash a story that is ripping apart his MAGA faithful.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “Tulsi,” “Gabbard,” “DNI,” “director of national intelligence,” or “director” within close proximity of any of the terms “Obama,” “Trump,” “collusion,” “criminal,” “hoax,” “report,” or “2016” or any variations of any of the terms “Russia,” “refer,” or “interfere” from July 18, 2025, when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents allegedly revealing evidence that Obama-era administration officials had “manufactured and politicized intelligence” about Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, through July 28, 2025.

We included segments, which we defined as instances when Gabbard's criminal referral or the contents of the referral were the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the referral or its contents. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the referral or its contents with one another.

We did not include mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned Gabbard's criminal referral or its contents without another speaker engaging with the comment, or teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about the referral or its contents scheduled to air later in the broadcast.