President Donald Trump declared his intent to “go after people” for what he says were attempts to interfere in the 2016 election by claiming Russia was seeking to influence the result.
“Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people,” Trump said in the Oval Office, where he is hosting the Philippine president.
Trump insisted former President Barack Obama was guilty of crimes for what he said was his role in weaponizing intelligence, calling the former Democratic president the “ringleader” of the alleged conspiracy.
“They caught President Obama absolutely cold,” Trump claimed.
He added later: “Obama’s been caught directly,” saying his actions amounted to “treason.”
“This is like proof, irrefutable proof that Obama was seditious, that Obama led, was trying to lead a coup, and it was with Hillary Clinton, with all these other people, but Obama headed it up,” he said later.
Last week, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified and released new intelligence documents that she claimed were evidence of a “treasonous conspiracy” by top Obama administration officials to manufacture the notion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
But the Trump administration’s allegations conflate and misrepresent what the intelligence community actually concluded, according to a review of a GOP-led Senate investigation from 2020 and interviews with congressional sources familiar with the probe.
The newly unsealed documents do nothing to undercut the government’s core findings in its 2017 assessment that Russia launched an influence and hacking campaign and sought to help Trump beat Clinton, the sources said.