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A spokesperson for former President Barack Obama responded Tuesday to President Donald Trump’s accusation of treason, calling the claim “outrageous.” Trump had pointed to Obama as the key figure behind what he described as fraudulent efforts during the 2016 election that undermined his presidency.
“Out of respect for the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” said Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush in a statement posted on X. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at a distraction.”
The remarks followed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s release of more than 100 pages of documents that she claimed showed the Obama administration had internally concluded that Russia did not alter vote totals in 2016 through cyberattacks. Gabbard described the documents as proof of a “treasonous conspiracy” by Obama officials to promote “manufactured intelligence that claims that Russia had helped” Trump win.
Rodenbush pushed back, stating, “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.” He noted those findings were backed by a 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report chaired by Senator Marco Rubio.
That report, although heavily redacted, determined that “the Russian government directed extensive activity, beginning in at least 2014 and carrying into at least 2017, against U.S. election infrastructure at the state and local level,” and concluded there was “no evidence that any votes were changed or that any voting machines were manipulated.”
Gabbard has since referred several Obama-era officials to the Department of Justice for their roles in the intelligence assessment tied to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
“He’s guilty,” Trump said of Obama during a meeting Tuesday with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Oval Office. “This is treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody’s ever even imagined, even in other countries.”
Trump added, “From what Tulsi told me, she’s got thousands of additional documents coming. So, President Obama, it was his concept, his idea. But he also got it from Crooked Hillary Clinton – crooked as a $3 bill.”
