By Art Harman, Senior Vice President – Policy, The Conservative Caucus
The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard just declassified and released never-before-seen files about the real ‘insurrection’—the 2019 impeachment of President Trump.
The documents prove it was all a “manufactured conspiracy.” An actual conspiracy. They concocted and used false narratives because Trump endangered the power of the ‘deep state,’ and they painted the most evil possible picture of the president’s motives. The media then hammered the message into every home.
Americans were told the first impeachment of President Donald Trump was a solemn defense of the Constitution. Now, the newly declassified material from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) proves what we knew all along: it was a political hit job built on lies and sand.
A Whistleblower Who Never Heard the Call
According to the ODNI, the original 2019 whistleblower never heard the Trump–Zelensky phone call at the heart of the impeachment charges. Instead, the charges were based on second-hand accounts and “reading between the lines” of what others said about the call. Yet this gossip-level sourcing was packaged and pushed into Washington’s most powerful channels as if it were hard, first-hand evidence of a presidential crime.
“Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States. Inspector General Atkinson failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people, putting political motivations over the truth.”
— TULSI GABBARD, Director of National Intelligence
Gabbard continued: “And this, along with the politicization of the whistleblower process by a former CIA employee who was working hand in glove with Democrats in Congress, are egregious examples of the deep state playbook on how to weaponize the Intelligence Community. Exposing these tactics and showing how they undermine the fabric of our democratic republic furthers the critical cause of transparency and accountability and will help prevent future abuse of power.”
“Defense of Democracy”? Or One-Party Rule in Disguise?
Democrat and media propaganda claimed this first Trump impeachment as a defense of democracy. In reality, the newly declassified record shows something far darker: a party willing to weaponize falsehoods and half-truths to overturn an election it lost. That’s just one-party rule in disguise.
The setup for impeachment was of course built on lies about a completely legal phone call that the whistleblower never heard, yet the key evidence — the call record for the Trump–Zelensky call — was ignored. The House Democrats and their allies in the media invented a narrative that fit their goal: remove or politically-incapacitate President Trump at any cost.
When a party can take falsehood, dress it up as “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and use it to remove a president, the law has already been bent to serve power.
The Core Danger to the Republic
That is the core danger to the republic. The Constitution assumes rival branches will check each other, not that one party will conspire across Congress, the bureaucracy, and left-wing media to manufacture grounds for impeachment.
If Democrats can rewrite rules, ignore the exculpatory evidence, and stretch whistleblower laws whenever it helps them, then elections stop being final decisions and become suggestions the ruling party can reverse.
Today the target is always Trump; tomorrow it can be any president, and ultimately any citizen who stands in the way.
What Democrats Will Do If They Win Congress
If Democrats take control of Congress in November, we know they’ll impeach Trump multiple times for invented reasons. You can bet they’ll fit in ‘war crimes’ and other shocking-sounding words to make voters be afraid to vote for Republicans. They’ll tie down the president’s ability to defend our nation and improve the lives of all Americans. They’ll release selective documents, and get their partisan prosecutors and judges to prepare criminal charges.
Our free republic cannot survive if one party is allowed to criminalize policy differences. The lesson of the first and second Trump impeachments is simple: when lies and legal abuses become normal tools of partisan warfare, we the people — not just one president — lose our sovereignty. To save the republic, those tactics must be exposed, punished, and rejected.
Gratitude, and What Must Come Next
We are grateful to DNI Tulsi Gabbard for her work to release the files, and perhaps there will be referrals for prosecution as a result. This is the first step in bringing justice for President Trump, and to deter against future illegal actions against a president.
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About the author: Art Harman is Senior Vice President – Policy at The Conservative Caucus.
About The Conservative Caucus: Founded in 1974, The Conservative Caucus is a grassroots public policy action organization. Under President Jim Pfaff, the Caucus advances free enterprise, limited government, and traditional values.
Published April 14, 2026 by The Conservative Caucus.
Peter J. Thomas is a veteran conservative political strategist and seasoned policy expert dedicated to upholding the principles of the Constitution and democracy. As a founder and the chairman of the Conservative Caucus, he has played a pivotal role in promoting and shaping the conservative agenda across the nation for over half a century.