President Donald Trump on Friday mentioned that former President Barack Obama seemingly has immunity following a U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling in gentle of a report that was declassified by Director of Nationwide Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard earlier this month.
Gabbard mentioned the paperwork confirmed that Obama and his then-Cupboard members “manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump,” which Obama denied in a press release earlier this week. Gabbard mentioned in a Sunday interview that she referred some Obama-era officers for prison prosecution to the Division of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI.
Trump on Friday was requested by a reporter throughout a press gaggle on the White Home, “How do you think that the Supreme Court’s ruling that benefited you on presidential immunity would apply to former President Barack Obama and what you’re accusing him of doing?”
The query for Trump was referring to the Supreme Court docket’s 6–3 ruling in 2024 that said presidents have prosecutorial immunity for official acts inside the government presidential authority that Congress has no jurisdiction over.
“It probably helps him a lot,” Trump mentioned in response, including that the ruling “doesn’t help the people around him at all. But it probably helps him a lot.”
The president mentioned he believed Obama had dedicated “criminal acts,” however that “he has Immunity,” which he mentioned “probably helps him a lot.”
“Obama owes me big” for the Supreme Court docket ruling, Trump mentioned.
Earlier this week, the president mentioned that Obama officers “tried to rig the election, and they got caught, and there should be very severe consequences for that.”
Responding to accusations from Gabbard, a spokesperson for Obama reiterated the assertion that Russia tried to intrude with the 2016 presidential 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,” the spokesperson mentioned on July 22.
Obama’s spokesperson additionally pointed to a 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee report, saying the committee affirmed that Russia labored to affect the election.
Earlier this week, Gabbard mentioned, “There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false.”
Among the many paperwork declassified by the DNI is a Home Intelligence report dated Sept. 18, 2020, which discovered that a number of intelligence reviews that advised Russian President Vladimir Putin aspired to assist then-presidential candidate Trump within the months main as much as the 2016 presidential election had been “substandard.”
Particularly, three reviews revealed internally by the CIA after the election contained info that was probably biased, implausible, unclear, or of unsure origin, the Home Intelligence Committee mentioned within the report that was launched by Gabbard on Wednesday.
“One scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports constitutes the only classified information to suggest Putin ‘aspired’ to help Trump win,” the panel said.
The reviews had been used as foundational sources for an intelligence group evaluation made public in January 2017.
The intelligence group “ignored or selectively quoted reliable intelligence reports that challenged—and in some cases undermined—judgments that Putin sought to elect Trump” and failed to think about believable different explanations, the Home report said.
The DOJ on July 23 introduced that it was forming a activity pressure following the declassification of the paperwork.
In a assertion posted to X, the DOJ mentioned that the duty pressure would “assess the evidence publicized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and investigate potential next legal steps which might stem from DNI Gabbard’s disclosures.”
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
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