President Donald Trump has ordered the Department of Justice to investigate former president Barack Obama, after it claimed to have “irrefutable” evidence that Obama’s administration falsely accused Trump’s campaign of having ties to Russia in an attempt to undermine his 2016 election bid.
The move comes after Obama refuted Trump’s claim that he was guilty of treason.
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said on behalf of the former president.
“But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”
Trump has attacked Obama in the past. Still, the president, since assuming office in January, has not gone so far as to accuse the former president and his entire administration of committing a crime.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with the president of the Philippines on Tuesday, Trump piggybacked on comments from his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who on Friday threatened to criminally charge Obama and his administration over intelligence suggesting they had conspired against Trump.
She declassified documents and said the information she was releasing showed a “treasonous conspiracy,” claims that Democrats say are false and politically motivated.
“It’s there, he’s guilty. This was treason,” Trump said, without offering proof.
“They tried to steal the election, they tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody’s ever imagined, even in other countries.”
The Trump administration doubled down on its claims of treason on Wednesday when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Obama of purposely attempting to create chaos before Trump took office in 2016.
Get daily National news
“While publicly pretending to engage in a peaceful transfer of power in private, former President Obama went to great and nefarious lengths to try to sow discord among the public and sabotage his successor, President Trump,” she said.
-
![]()
Trump denies he wrote alleged bawdy birthday note to Epstein: ‘Somebody could have used my name’ -
![]()
World Junior Trial: ‘Not guilty’ decision, so what’s next? -
![]()
Remembering Hulk Hogan: Wrestling icon leaves behind complicated legacy -
![]()
Powell fact-checks Trump to his face about cost of Federal Reserve overhaul
The Director of National Intelligence introduced new intelligence Wednesday — a declassified report from a House committee that Leavitt said “confirms that the Obama administration manufactured politicized intelligence, which was later used as the justification for baseless smears against President Trump in an effort to try to delegitimize his victory before he even took the oath of office.”
Leavitt added that President Trump has never had anything to do with Russia and that the “collusion hoax” was a “massive fraud” against the American people knowingly executed in lieu of the truth by Obama, CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and many others, she claimed.
Following Leavitt’s remarks, Gabbard detailed the findings of a declassified oversight majority staff report that was produced in September of 2020, the contents of which she said should be “a concern to every American.”
“There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false,” she continued.
The evidence in the newly released report directly contradicts an inquest from 2020, which claimed that Russia used a mole and other tools to try and sway the 2016 election in Trump’s favour.
The bipartisan report by the Senate intelligence committee says Russia used Republican political operative Paul Manafort, the WikiLeaks website and others to try to influence the 2016 election to help Trump’s campaign, albeit unsuccessfully.
Gabbard said the report concluded that Putin refrained from sharing information about her apparent daily use of “heavy tranquillizers” to regulate “psycho emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness.”
She also said it indicated that Brennan and the intelligence community “mischaracterized intelligence” and relied on “dubious, substandard sources” to create a false narrative that Putin had a preference for Trump.
Rodenbush referenced the 2020 bipartisan inquest in his defence of the former Democratic president, to shut down the treason claims made by the Trump administration in last week’s files.
According to Reuters, Trump has frequently labelled the findings a hoax, a tactic he often employs to quash unfavourable narratives about his conduct.
In recent days, the president reposted on Truth Social a fake AI-generated video depicting Obama being handcuffed and arrested in the Oval Office, coupled with a series of clips of former Democratic leaders, including Joe Biden, saying “no one is above the law.”
Similarly, after breaking a promise to release unseen documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a roster of the former financier’s wealthy clients — the Trump administration said there was no such list, but then blamed the existence of the highly publicized files on Democrats, claiming evidence against Epstein had been compiled by Trump’s political foes in an attempt to undermine him in a “hoax”-style campaign.
In a statement posted on his Truth Social account, Trump wrote, “Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration?”
“They created the Epstein Files,” he wrote.
-
![]()
Epstein files: U.S. Justice Department seeks meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell -
![]()
Trump sues Wall Street Journal for $10B over article tying him to Jeffrey Epstein -
![]()
Trump plagued by MAGA backlash from handling of Epstein files -
![]()
Epstein files: Trump says Bondi can release anything ‘credible’ but maintains its Democrat ‘hoax’ -
![]()
Trump calls MAGA base ‘stupid people’ and gullible ‘weaklings’ over Epstein files
Trump, asked in the Oval Office on Tuesday about Epstein, quickly pivoted into an attack on Obama and Hillary Clinton.
“The witch hunt that you should be talking about is they caught President Obama absolutely cold,” Trump said.
Trump suggested action would be taken against Obama and his former officials, calling the Russia investigation a treasonous act and the former president guilty of “trying to lead a coup.”
— With files from Reuters
Comments