"Outrageous, Bizarre": Obama Slams Trump's 2016 Election 'Treason' Claim

Former US President Barack Obama has broken his silence on Donald Trump's "treason" accusations, calling the Republican leader's attack "a weak attempt at distraction". Trump on Tuesday called for his predecessor's prosecution over a report alleging that officials in the Obama administration manipulated information on Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

The President was referring to a report sent by US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard last week to the Justice Department that asserted the Obama officials had been part of a "treasonous conspiracy." -- findings that Democrats have branded false.

Responding to Trump's charges, Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said the remarks were an attempt to shift focus away from the mushrooming crisis around the administration's failure to release files connected to the Jeffrey Epstein case.

"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. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction," he said.

The statement said that 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,"  he added. 

A bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee -- spearheaded by then acting chairman Marco Rubio, now Trump's secretary of state -- found in 2020 that the Trump campaign sought to "maximise the impact" of leaks of Democratic documents stolen by Russian military intelligence.

The aim of the hack, it said, was to help Trump and hurt Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election.

"The Russian intelligence services' assault on the integrity of the 2016 US electoral process, and Trump and his associates' participation in and enabling of this Russian activity, represents one of the single most grave counterintelligence threats to American national security in the modern era," the report said.

What Tulsi Gabbard's Report Said

In her report, Gabbard had claimed Obama and his team had manufactured intelligence regarding Russian election interference to "lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump."

Her accusations were widely criticised as they fly in the face of findings by four separate criminal, counterintelligence and watchdog probes between 2019 and 2023 -- all of which concluded that Russia did intervene on Trump's behalf in the 2016 election.

Trump's Accusations

The Republican leader was asked whom the department should target in response to Gabbard's report during an Oval Office press event with visiting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.

"Based on what I read -- and I read pretty much what you read -- it would be President Obama. He started it," said Trump, who was criticised on Monday for sharing an AI-generated video of Obama being arrested.

Trump also singled out Obama's then-vice president Joe Biden, former FBI director James Comey, former DNI director James Clapper and ex-CIA director John Brennan as being part of a conspiracy.

But he said the "leader of the gang" was Obama, accusing him of being guilty of "treason."

Trump has claimed since they were launched that the various probes into Russian interference in the 2016 election -- and his own campaign's involvement -- were a "hoax."