Barack Obama has unequivocally denied Donald Trump’s accusations, where he alleged that the former President attempted to orchestrate a ‘coup’ after Trump’s victory in the 2016 election.
In an unusual move, Obama’s office issued a strongly worded statement denying all allegations levelled against him by the current President. The statement follows Trump’s remarks on Tuesday, where he said that his predecessor had ‘tried to lead a coup’ in 2016 and was guilty of ‘treason’ for ‘manufacturing’ intelligence reports that indicated Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election.
What did Obama’s office say?
The statement from Obama’s office explained, “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.”
The statement went on to further criticise claims made in the report released by the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, last week. The report asserts that Russian and criminal entities did not influence the 2016 presidential election through cyberattacks on infrastructure.
“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,” Obama’s office declared.
This is the very same report that led Trump to sound the alarm and call for a criminal investigation against the former President. The report’s author, Gabbard, further commented on the issue, calling it a “treasonous conspiracy” among Obama national security officials to the Justice Department, and recommended their prosecution.
Who would be the main target of the criminal investigation?
When a reporter inquired about the primary target of the criminal investigation recommended by Gabbard’s report, Trump responded, saying, “It would be President Obama. He initiated it, and Biden was present with him. Additionally, [James] Comey [the former FBI director] was there, and [James] Clapper [the former director of national intelligence], the entire contingent was involved.”
“They attempted to hijack the election. They tried to obscure the election. They committed acts that nobody’s ever even imagined, ” he added.
Trump also mentioned that Gabbard informed him she had “thousands of additional documents forthcoming.”
Validity of the Gabbard report?
Experts argue that the Gabbard report, which accused the Obama administration of forcing spy agencies to alter their conclusions, conflated and underrepresented different issues to discredit the intelligence community’s original assessment in 2017 that Russia sought to simultaneously help Trump and damage Clinton.
As the original assessment document concluded that Russia did not launch cyberattacks against American elections to manipulate vote tallies, but found out that Moscow had hacked and leaked documents from the Democratic National Committee to damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign opposing Trump.