Trump accuses Obama of treason in escalating attacks over 2016 Russia probe

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump made serious allegations of "treason" against former President Barack Obama, claiming, without presenting evidence, that Obama orchestrated a scheme to falsely link him to Russia and undermine his 2016 presidential campaign. A spokesperson for Obama quickly dismissed Trump's accusations as "ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction."

While Trump has a history of criticizing Obama, these specific accusations of criminal action represent a new escalation since Trump's return to office in January. Trump's claims were fueled by recent comments from his intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, who on Friday threatened to refer Obama administration officials to the Justice Department. Gabbard, after declassifying documents, alleged a "treasonous conspiracy" by high-ranking Obama administration officials in 2016 to undermine Trump, claims that Democrats have labeled as false and politically motivated.

"It's there, he's guilty. This was treason," Trump declared on Tuesday, though he provided no substantiation for his assertions. He further alleged, "They tried to steal the election, they tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody's ever imagined, even in other countries." These remarks stand in contrast to a January 2017 U.S. intelligence community assessment, which concluded that Russia used disinformation, hacking, and bot farms to harm Hillary Clinton's campaign and support Trump, while noting limited actual impact on voting outcomes.

Furthermore, a bipartisan 2020 report by the Senate intelligence committee found that Russia employed figures like Paul Manafort and the WikiLeaks website to influence the 2016 election in favor of Trump's campaign. Patrick Rodenbush, an Obama spokesperson, countered Trump's claims by stating, "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."

Trump, known for promoting conspiracy theories, has often dismissed assessments of Russian interference as a "hoax." Recently, he even reposted a fake video on Truth Social depicting Obama's arrest. These renewed attacks on Obama appear to be a strategic diversion. Trump has been facing pressure from his conservative base to release more information concerning Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges. When questioned about Epstein in the Oval Office, Trump swiftly pivoted to attacking Obama and Clinton.

Trump insinuated that action would be taken against Obama and his former officials, characterizing the Russia investigation as a treasonous act and accusing the former president of "trying to lead a coup." He asserted, "It's time to start, after what they did to me, and whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people. Obama has been caught directly." Democratic Representative Jim Himes refuted Trump's claims on X, pointing out that even Republican Senator Marco Rubio, now Trump's Secretary of State, helped lead a bipartisan Senate investigation that found no evidence of politicization in the intelligence community's conduct regarding the 2016 election.

Since his return to office, Trump has consistently criticized political opponents, alleging they weaponized the federal government against him and his allies in relation to the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack and his handling of classified materials after leaving office. His attacks on predecessors are not new; in 2011, he questioned Obama's birthplace, prompting Obama to release his birth certificate. More recently, he accused former President Joe Biden of using an autopen to sign sensitive documents, a claim Biden dismissed as false and ridiculous.

Gabbard's accusation that Obama conspired to subvert Trump's 2016 election by manufacturing intelligence on Russia's interference is contradicted by several sources, including a CIA review ordered by Director John Ratcliffe on July 2, a 2018 bipartisan Senate report, and even declassified documents released by Gabbard herself last week. These documents indicate that Gabbard conflated two distinct U.S. intelligence findings. One finding was that Russia was not attempting to hack U.S. election infrastructure to alter vote counts. The second, however, was that Moscow was likely using cyber means to influence the U.S. political environment through information operations, including the theft and leaking of data from Democratic Party servers. The January 2017 U.S. intelligence assessment, commissioned by Obama, built upon this second finding, concluding that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to sway the 2016 vote toward Trump. While the review ordered by Ratcliffe identified flaws in the production of that assessment, it did not dispute its core conclusion and upheld the "quality and credibility" of a highly classified CIA report that formed the basis of the assessment.