Former President Barack Obama’s office issued a statement on Tuesday responding to the latest attacks from Donald Trump accusing Obama and members of his administration of committing crimes.
“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 week attempt at distraction,” Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesperson for Obama said.
“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,” Rodenbush continued. “These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.”
Trump has been baselessly accusing Obama and others of orchestrating a plot against him, calling it “treason,” as he revived long-standing grievances over the investigation into Russia’s influence in the 2016 election. This comes as he is trying to deflect questions about the Epstein case.
On Friday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified and released documents which she claimed showed top Obama officials manufactured the claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and amounts to a “treasonous conspiracy”.
Sources told CNN that 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 Donald Trump defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Despite this, Gabbard wrote in a post, that she was “turning over all documents to the DOJ for criminal referral.”
