Former President Barack Obama denied President Donald Trump’s ‘bizarre allegations’ that he was the Russiagate ‘ringleader,’ in a rare public statement Tuesday evening.
Trump, earlier on Tuesday, claimed that former President Barack Obama was the ‘ringleader’ of Russiagate, calling for him to be criminally investigated amid new claims that members of his administration allegedly ‘manufactured’ intelligence that prompted the Trump–Russia collusion narrative.
‘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,’ Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. ‘But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.’
‘These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,’ Obama’s spokesman continued. ‘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 added: ‘These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.’
Rodenbush’s statement on behalf of Obama comes after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently declassified documents revealing ‘overwhelming evidence’ that claimed that after Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, then-President Obama and his national security team allegedly laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe.
Gabbard said the documents revealed that Obama administration officials ‘manufactured and politicized intelligence’ to allegedly create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, despite information from the intelligence community stating otherwise.
The new documents name Obama, top officials on his National Security Council, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, national security advisor Susan Rice, Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, among others.
Gabbard, on Monday, sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department related to those findings. Department of Justice officials did not share further details on whom the criminal referral was for.
As for Gabbard’s criminal referral, Trump was asked which specific figures should be under criminal investigation, to which he replied: ‘President Obama. He started it.’
‘And Biden was there with him, and Comey was there, and Clapper, the whole group was there. Brennan. They were all there in the room right here. This is the room,’ Trump said from the Oval Office Tuesday during a meeting with the president of the Philippines. ‘It was President Obama. It was lots of people all over the place.’
No other former Obama-era officials have responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The president went on to say that his administration has ‘all of the documents, and from what Tulsi told me, she’s got thousands of additional documents coming.’
‘So President Obama, it was his concept — his idea,’ Trump said Tuesday. ‘But he also got it from crooked Hillary Clinton — crooked as a $3 bill, and Hillary Clinton and her group, the Democrats, spent $12 million to Christopher Steele to write up a report that was a total fake report.’
Steele authored the discredited anti-Trump dossier, which was paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through law firm Perkins Coie.
The anti-Trump dossier served as the basis for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
The intelligence community, at the time, widely viewed the dossier as ‘internet rumor,’ but top officials, like Comey, McCabe and Brennan, reportedly pushed for its inclusion in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment.
‘It took two years to figure that out, but it came out that it was a total fake report — it was made-up fiction — and they used that,’ Trump said. ‘The Steele report was a disaster — all lies, all fabrication, all admitted fraud.’
Meanwhile, Trump said ‘we caught Hillary Clinton, we got Barack Hussein Obama. They’re the ones. And then you have many, many people under them. Susan Rice — they’re all the names.’
‘I guess they figured they’re going to put this in as classified information and nobody will ever see it again — but it doesn’t work that way,’ Trump said. ‘It is the most unbelievable thing I think I’ve ever read.’
Trump added: ‘Never has a thing like this happened in the history of our country.’
On July 28, 2016, Brennan briefed President Obama on a plan from one of Clinton’s campaign foreign policy advisors ‘to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service,’ meeting notes said.
‘We’re getting additional insight into Russian activities from (REDACTED),’ read Brennan’s handwritten notes, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital in October 2020. ‘CITE (summarizing) alleged approved by Hillary Clinton a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.’
After that briefing, the CIA properly forwarded that information through a Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL) to Comey and Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok, with the subject line: ‘Crossfire Hurricane.’
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to take over the FBI’s original ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation. After nearly two years, Mueller’s investigation, which concluded in March 2019, yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election.
Shortly after, John Durham was appointed as special counsel to investigate the origins of the ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ probe.
Durham found that the FBI ‘failed to act’ on a ‘clear warning sign’ that the bureau was the ‘target’ of a Clinton-led effort to ‘manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes’ ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Comey and Brennan are currently under criminal investigation, launched by FBI Director Kash Patel.
Fox News’ Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.