White House pushes Obama 'coup' story to distract from Epstein
The White House pulled out all the stops Wednesday to promote claims that Barack Obama headed a "treasonous conspiracy" against Donald Trump, seeking to redirect public attention from uproar over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein affair.
Trump's intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard told a White House press briefing there had been a "years-long coup" by Obama.
The extraordinary narrative essentially rehashed Trump's longstanding argument that investigations into Russia's multi-layered attempts to disrupt the 2016 election, where he beat Hillary Clinton, were a "hoax" against him.
Gabbard touted newly declassified intelligence that she said provided "irrefutable evidence" that Obama had ordered intelligence assessments to be manipulated to accuse Russia of election interference to help Trump.
The Justice Department announced the formation of a "Strike Force" to examine the allegations with "utmost seriousness."
But Gabbard's findings run up against four separate criminal, counterintelligence and watchdog probes between 2019 and 2023 -- each of them concluding that Russia did interfere and did, in various ways, help Trump.
As a way to distract from the intensifying speculation over Trump's handling of the case against the late sex offender and reputed pedophile pimp to the powerful Epstein, the Obama accusations had some effect.
White House journalists at the briefing barely asked about Epstein, focusing instead on Gabbard's claims, and Fox News heavily promoted the Obama story to its right-wing audience.
However, the Epstein scandal quickly roared back, showing just how hard it is for 79-year-old Trump to maintain his usual mastery of driving news agendas -- even within his fervently loyal "MAGA" base.
- Trump's name in files -
Epstein was a financier and friend to numerous high-profile people -- for years, including Trump -- who was convicted of sex crimes and then imprisoned pending trial for allegedly trafficking underage girls.
His 2019 prison cell death -- ruled a suicide -- supercharged a conspiracy theory long promoted by many of Trump's supporters that Epstein had run an international pedophile ring and that elites wanted to make sure he never revealed their secrets.
After Trump came to power for a second term this January, his administration promised to release Epstein case files.
But when US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on July 7 that she had nothing to release, Republicans were furious -- and Trump has been attempting to control the scandal ever since.
Things got even more complicated for him after The Wall Street Journal last week reported that Trump had written a lewd birthday letter to Epstein in 2003. Trump denies this and has sued the Journal.
On Wednesday, the Journal dropped a new story, saying Bondi had informed Trump in May that his name appeared several times in the Epstein files, even if there was no indication of wrongdoing.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called this "fake news" and said Trump had long ago broken with Epstein and "kicked him out of his club for being a creep."
However, the drip-drip of reminders of Trump's close former relationship with Epstein is proving hard to stop.
Several of Trump's most effective promoters over the years -- including new FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino -- made careers of fanning the rumors about Epstein.
Democrats are piling on the pressure. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives sent lawmakers home early for a six-week summer break Wednesday to avoid being forced into holding politically awkward votes on the affair.
But some lawmakers on the "MAGA" right have indicated they are in no mood to let Epstein drop, and several bids for transparency are in the works.
Just before the declared recess, Democrats on a House subcommittee panel forced a vote on subpoenaing the Justice Department for documents regarding Epstein.
The measure passed with bipartisan support.
In another bid to satisfy his base, Trump had told Bondi to release "credible" Epstein information and to seek release of grand jury transcripts from the 2005 and 2007 investigations of Epstein.
But on Wednesday a judge rejected this, citing legal secrecy protocols.
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