Trump Accuses Obama of Treason, Obama Responds Calling Allegations “Ridiculous”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump accused his predecessor Barack Obama of treason and called for his prosecution over a report suggesting that officials in the Democratic administration manipulated information regarding Russian interference in the 2016 elections.
The National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard, sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department related to a report published last Friday, asserting that officials in the Obama administration were part of a “treasonous conspiracy.”
Gabbard claimed that Obama and his team fabricated intelligence about Russian interference in the presidential elections “to lay the groundwork for a coup that lasted for years against President Trump.”
When asked during a press conference in the Oval Office with visiting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos about who should be prosecuted in connection with Gabbard’s report, Trump said: “Based on what I read (…) it would be President Obama. He initiated it.”
Trump indicated that former Vice President Joe Biden, who was Obama’s deputy at the time, former FBI Director James Comey, former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, and former CIA Director John Brennan were all part of the conspiracy. He then labeled Obama as the “leader of the gang,” accusing him of being “guilty of treason.”
Trump’s recent statements were viewed by his critics as an attempt to divert attention from the worsening crisis surrounding his administration’s failure to release documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, while Obama’s office described them as “ridiculous and a weak attempt to distract.”
Obama’s spokesperson, Patrick Rodenbush, stated, “Nothing in the document released last week undermines the conclusion (…) that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election, but it did not succeed in manipulating any votes.”
In 2020, a joint report by Republicans and Democrats, issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee chaired at the time by Marco Rubio, now U.S. Secretary of State, concluded that Trump’s campaign sought to “maximize the impact” of the leaks of documents from the Democratic Party, which were hacked by Russian military intelligence, noting that the goal of the breach was to assist Trump and harm Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 elections.
