A spokesperson for Barack Obama said Tuesday it was "outrageous" that President Donald Trump accused the former president of treason when pointing to Obama as the perpetrator of 2016 election fraud claims that put a cloud over Trump's first term.
"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," Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said 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."
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday made public more than 100 pages that she said revealed the Obama administration quietly concluded Russia didn't impact the 2016 election's vote totals via cyberattacks. She cited those documents as evidence of a "treasonous conspiracy" by the Obama administration to amplify "manufactured intelligence that claims that Russia had helped" Trump win the election.
"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 said. "These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio."
The heavily redacted report cited by Rodenbush concluded 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." The report also found "no evidence that any votes were changed or that any voting machines were manipulated."
Gabbard reportedly made criminal referrals Monday to the Department of Justice regarding Obama administration officials who participated in an intelligence assessment at the time regarding alleged Russian election interference in 2016.
"He's guilty," Trump told reporters about Obama earlier Tuesday during an Oval Office visit with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., an event that aired live on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 free online streaming platform. "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.
"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."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.