Gabbard Lays Out Her Case That Obama Oversaw a ‘Treasonous Conspiracy’ Sowing False Narratives About Russia in Attempted ‘Coup’ Against Trump

The director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is doubling down on her accusation that President Obama is guilty of a “treasonous conspiracy” to knowingly create a false intelligence assessment furthering the narrative that President Trump was aided by Russia in the 2016 campaign. Mr. Obama’s office calls the accusations “bizarre.”Attorney General Bondi says she is forming a “Strike Force” within the Department of Justice to “investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice.”Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Ms. Gabbard again painted Mr. Obama and his intelligence aides as nefarious actors in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. She said that American intelligence officials created a poor work product, ignored evidence that would have disproved their claims, and then pushed the intelligence assessments to the press in order to make Mr. Trump look bad. “They manufactured findings from shoddy sources. They suppressed evidence and credible intelligence that disproved their false claims,” Ms. Gabbard said. “In doing so, they conspired to subvert the will of the American people who elected Donald Trump in that election in November of 2016.” She said that it was equivalent to “launching what would be a years-long coup” against Mr. Trump. Ultimately, a special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove any criminal collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. But the investigation was a major distraction during the first Trump term and Mr. Trump remains enraged by the whole situation. The Trump administration’s claim that members of Mr. Obama’s inner circle planned a coup against the new president rests mostly on a draft of the December 8, 2016, presidential daily brief. The draft stated that there was no evidence of Russia trying to interfere in the 2016 election on behalf of Mr. Trump. The following day, Mr. Obama ordered a new intelligence assessment, which concluded that Russia had, in fact, made an effort to sow distrust and influence the outcome of the 2016 race. When pressed by a reporter at the briefing about whether Mr. Obama was then guilty of treason, Ms. Gabbard said she was not a prosecutor, but to her, she saw a “treasonous conspiracy.”“I’m leaving the criminal charges to the Department of Justice,” Ms. Gabbard told reporters. “I am not an attorney, but as I have said previously, when you look at the intent behind creating a fake, manufactured intelligence document that directly contradicts multiples assessments that were created by the intelligence community — the expressed intent and what followed afterward can only be described as a years-long coup and a treasonous conspiracy against the American people,” she said. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, argued that Mr. Obama “went to great and nefarious lengths to try to sow discord among the public and sabotage his successor.”Ms. Leavitt, when asked by a reporter about Mr. Trump’s feelings on the matter, said that the president wants to see people “held accountable” for any alleged crimes. “He wants to see all those that perpetuated this fraud against our country — who betrayed our country and the Constitution — to be thoroughly investigated and held accountable,” Ms. Leavitt said. She specifically named a former DNI, James Clapper; a former FBI director, James Comey; and a former FBI deputy director, Andrew McCabe, as individuals who are responsible for the intelligence assessment about Russian interference, implying that they ought to be investigated. The three men all became fierce critics of Mr. Trump once they left government service, all writing best-selling anti-Trump books.A spokesman for Mr. Obama, Patrick Rodenbush, has pushed back forcefully against the accusations of treason or treachery that are now being thrown by Ms. Gabbard and others in the Trump White House. “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. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one,” Mr. Rodenbush said in a statement Tuesday. He called the accusations “ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.” “Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio,” Mr. Rodenbush said. Announcing the DOJ “Strike Force” on Wednesday, Ms. Bondi explained in a statement that its purpose is to “investigate potential next legal steps which might stem from DNI Gabbard’s disclosures.”Ms. Bondi added that the DOJ “takes alleged weaponization of the intelligence community with the utmost seriousness.”

Gabbard Lays Out Her Case That Obama Oversaw a ‘Treasonous Conspiracy’ Sowing False Narratives About Russia in Attempted ‘Coup’ Against Trump

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