Reason why Trump believes Obama is 'guilty' of 'treason' as he declares it's 'time to go after people'
President Donald Trump has touched on why he believes former President Barack Obama has committed treason.
The 63-year-old Democrat issued a rare statement in response to the 79-year-old POTUS accusing him of being 'guilty' of committing a criminal offense relating to the 2016 election - in which Trump beat Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton.
Obama's office has since slammed the allegations as 'bizarre' and 'ridiculous', but the Republican insists that his former predecessor's administration were crooked.
"After what they did to me, whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people. Obama has been caught directly,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office yesterday (July 22), referencing his own criminal conviction as well as the director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's recent comments.
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On Friday, Gabbard threatened to refer Obama and his administration's top officials to the Justice Department for prosecution following an investigation into whether they manipulated intelligence to suggest Russia interfered in the 2016 election and undermine his victory.
While the Obama administration did claim that Russia attempted to interfere in that election, it clarified it was not successful in swaying the result.
Trump continued: “If you look at those papers, they have them stone cold, and it was President Obama… the leader of the gang was President Obama, Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?”
The papers being from the investigation held by Gabbard's department.
He went on: “It’s criminal at the highest level. It would be President Obama, he started it. And [Joe] Biden was there with him, and [then-FBI director James] Comey was there, and [then-director of National Intelligence James] Clapper — the whole group was there, and [then-CIA director John] Brennan.”
Before adding: “He’s guilty … This was treason, this was every word you could think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election.”
Obama's spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush has responded on behalf of the former president to these 'bizarre' and 'ridiculous' allegations.
“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,” he said. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.”
Rodenbush continued: "These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction."
Noting that a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report in 2020 found that Russia had in fact tried to sway the 2016 election in Trump's favor, through Republican political operative Paul Manafort and the WikiLeaks website.
"Nothing in the document issued last week (by Gabbard) undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes," Rodenbush added.
It comes after the Trump administration's controversial handling of the Epstein files has caused some MAGA supporters to split from the movement.
Topics: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Russia, Politics, US News
Joe Yates