President Trump said it’s “time to go after people” after National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard issued a report detailing an alleged Obama administration conspiracy to discredit Mr. Trump’s 2016 election victory.
The president, in response to a reporter’s question about the government’s Jeffrey Epstein files, pivoted to the new documents linking President Obama to the Russia collusion narrative that loomed over Mr. Trump’s first term.
“The witch hunt that you should be talking about is they caught President Obama absolutely cold,” he said. “What they did to this country … starting in 2016 but going up all the way to 2020 and the election, and they tried to rig the election and they got caught.
“After what they did to me, whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people,” Mr. Trump told reporters at an Oval Office sit-down with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Mr. Trump named Mr. Obama, former FBI Director James B. Comey and former CIA Director John O. Brennan among the people who plotted against him.
“He’s guilty,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Obama. “This was treason.”
Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement Tuesday that “these bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”
“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.”
Democrats said the Trump administration was using the accusations about Mr. Obama as a distraction from its failure to release the files on the late Epstein, a convicted sex offender who palled around with rich and powerful men.
Sen. Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who serves as vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, said Ms. Gabbard’s investigation “was again trying to maybe divert from Epstein, trying to rehash the 2016 Russia investigation.”
“Now Gabbard, in her next effort of trying to politicize, is actually threatening legal action against former employees of the intelligence community and others,” he said on X. “Is there not anyone that’s going to stand up against this politicization? The country needs an independent intelligence community that speaks truth to power, not that makes up fables to try to please Donald Trump.”
Ms. Gabbard said the Obama administration “manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a yearslong coup against President Trump” on the back of the debunked Russian interference allegation.
She said Sunday that all the documents uncovered are being referred to the Justice Department and the FBI for a criminal referral.
“We are going to provide everything that we have, everything that we will continue to gather, to the Department of Justice for that direct intent, and that direct purpose,” she said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“There must be indictments,” she said. “Those responsible, no matter how powerful they are and were at that time, no matter who was involved in creating this treasonous conspiracy against the American people, they all must be held accountable.”
In a memo released Friday, Ms. Gabbard said the information “clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government.”
“Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a yearslong coup with the objective of trying to usurp the President from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people,” she said.
Intelligence officials have concluded that Russia used a disinformation campaign in 2016 to damage Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, but that Mr. Trump was not involved.
Intelligence officials concluded that Russia hacked into the Democratic National Committee’s computer network and the personal emails of John Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman.
Stolen documents and emails were posted on WikiLeaks, including conversations showing that DNC officials manipulated the primary process to help Mrs. Clinton and hurt her chief competitor for the nomination, Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont. The scandal prompted the resignation of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s $32 million investigation into Russian interference found no link to Mr. Trump or his campaign but concluded that Moscow “interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.”
A Republican-led Senate investigation in 2020 also said the “committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community’s conclusions.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the new DNI documents were “irrefutable proof” that Obama was trying to lead “a coup.”
“This is the biggest scandal in the history of our country,” he said.
• Seth McLaughlin contributed to this report.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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