Trump Accuses Obama of ‘Treason’ Over Russia Probe, Calls for Prosecution

Donald Trump on Tuesday launched a scathing accusation against former President Barack Obama, alleging he committed “treason” and should be prosecuted over a new report claiming that officials in Obama’s administration manipulated intelligence on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, reportedly sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department following the release of a report last Friday that alleged a “treasonous conspiracy” involving Obama-era officials.

According to Gabbard, the Obama administration fabricated intelligence on Russian meddling in order to “lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump.”

Her claims directly contradict the findings of four separate investigations — criminal, counterintelligence, and oversight probes — conducted between 2019 and 2023, all of which concluded that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election to benefit Trump.

Trump was asked during an Oval Office press briefing with visiting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos who he believed should be held responsible.

“Based on what I read — and I read pretty much what you read — it would be President Obama. He started it,” said Trump, who had already faced backlash a day earlier for sharing an AI-generated video depicting Obama being arrested.

He also pointed fingers at then-Vice President Joe Biden, former FBI Director James Comey, ex-DNI Director James Clapper, and former CIA Director John Brennan, calling them part of a conspiracy. But he insisted that Obama was the “leader of the gang,” accusing him of “treason.”

Trump has repeatedly dismissed the Russia investigations as a “hoax” since they began. However, a bipartisan 2020 report by the Senate Intelligence Committee, then led by Marco Rubio — now Trump’s secretary of state — found that the Trump campaign actively worked to “maximize the impact” of Democratic document leaks by Russian military intelligence.

The report stated: “It is our conclusion… that 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