Trump, Obama and the Question of Treason
Mr. Trump is wrong on the facts and the law, and his sensational allegation serves only to demonstrate how completely he has degraded contemporary political discourse.
Mr. Trump denounced Mr. Obama after Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, asked the Justice Department to investigate whether intelligence officials in the Obama administration faked evidence of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. When the question of who should be targeted in the investigation was posed at an Oval Office press availability, Mr. Trump said: 'It would be President Obama. He started it. … This was 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.' Mr. Trump also mentioned former President Joe Biden, former F.B.I. Director James Comey, the former director of national intelligence James Clapper and former C.I.A. Director John Brennan as other possible defendants.
President Trump's history of intemperate remarks has earned him a perverse kind of immunity; the more outrageous his statement, the faster it is often dismissed. But Mr. Trump doesn't deserve this bloviator's privilege. He's not just the president, but, more to the point, he's the overseer of an unusually compliant Justice Department, and his offhand condemnation of his predecessor is as significant as it is chilling.
Indeed, Mr. Trump made sure that the investigation of purported treason swiftly took on a life of its own. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that a Justice Department 'strike force' would investigate the allegations against Mr. Obama and the others, and a pair of Republican senators, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn, have called for the appointment of a special counsel to lead the inquiry.
Treason is the only crime defined in the Constitution, and it's set out there, in relevant part, as giving 'aid and comfort' to our enemies. Regurgitating a claim that Mr. Trump and his allies have made for years, Ms. Gabbard said that President Obama, after Hillary Clinton was defeated by President Trump in the 2016 election, 'directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false.'
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
8 minutes ago
- New York Post
Hamas issues order to kill hostages if Israeli military attempts rescue, as latest cease-fire talks fail: sources
Hamas is planning to kill the remaining Israeli hostages if the Jewish state sends in troops to rescue them — the latest move by the terror group to undermine peace efforts in Gaza. The terror group has reportedly reinstated its previously abandoned kill order on its captives if Israeli forces or anyone else closes in an attempt to retrieve the 50 remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip, according to the Times of Israel. That policy had been scrapped after a short-lived cease-fire was reached in January, Hamas sources told the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat. Hamas also reportedly boasted that an Israeli military operation to free the hostages would fail, the outlet reported. Advertisement Of the 50 Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza, about 20 are still believed to be alive. The plans come as the US walked away from the latest cease-fire talks in Qatar on Thursday, before slamming the terror group for showing no real interest in striking a deal with Israel. 4 Netanyahu said he would consider 'alternative options' to bring the hostages home after talks broke down. Getty Images Advertisement President Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said 'alternative options' to bring the hostages home would now have to be considered, after the latest round of negotiations broke down. His comments were echoed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said 'together with our US allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home' Neither the US or Israel have offered insight into what those alternative options might include. But Trump said he would approve of Israel's military finishing off Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Advertisement 'Hamas didn't really want to make a deal,' Trump told reporters Friday as he departed the White House for a trip to Scotland. 'I think they want to die.' 4 The war in Gaza has been raging for almost two years. AP The terror group responded by calling Trump's comments 'surprising' on Saturday. Advertisement 4 Thousands rallied in Tel Aviv calling for the release of all remaining hostages. AFP via Getty Images 'Trump's remarks are particularly surprising, especially as they come at a time when progress had been made on some of the negotiation files,' a Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP. Meanwhile, thousands of protestors in Tel Aviv marched to the US embassy on Saturday night, for the second week in a row, calling for a truce that releases the remaining hostages and puts an end to the war in Gaza. Hamas captured 251 hostages during the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. Of those, 148 were released following negotiations — 140 alive, eight dead. 4 Protestors in Tel Aviv are urging for a cease-fire deal. AP The Israeli military has only been able to rescue eight hostages alive. 'Every time the talks stop, every time a deal blows up, those who pay the price are the hostages,' Or Levy, who was released from Hamas captivity in February, told the crowd. Advertisement 'I can tell you what it's like to live 50 meters underground, without daylight, without sky, just constant fear that everything will end … what they're still going through there, can't really be understood.'
New York Post
8 minutes ago
- New York Post
Tulsi Gabbard fires back at Obama: ‘absolute failure'
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired back at former President Barack Obama, accusing him of deflecting from his administration's 'absolute failure' to vet intelligence reports used to fuel narratives of Russian collusion with the 2016 Trump campaign. 'The treasonous conspiracy that we have now released to the American people — the complicity, the deflection, and the silence of politicians, of the mainstream media, and of those directly implicated into this speaks volumes,' Gabbard said on Fox & Friends Saturday. 3 Gabbard fired back at Obama Saturday on Fox. MediaPunch / BACKGRID Advertisement On Tuesday, President Trump called for criminal charges against Obama, 63, for allegedly ordering an intelligence report saying Russia meddled to help him win the White House in 2016. Trump was referring to documents Gabbard declassified last week. Obama's office responded, calling the claims an attempt at distracting from the scandal over the administration's handling of the Epstein files. Advertisement '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,' Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesman for Obama said. 3 Obama called the claims against him 'bizarre.' Corbis via Getty Images 'But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,' he said, referring to the mounting pressure on Trump to release the Epstein files. '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.' Advertisement 3 Gabbard released documents last week about Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Anna Wilding / Gabbard lashed out at Obama's answer during her Fox appearance. 'President Obama's very carefully worded response that came from his office, again, deflects away from addressing any of the truth that was revealed,' she said. 'They would have to admit and actually address the details of their complicity in this or their absolute failure in conducting the most basic responsibilities of, again, asking, where is this intelligence coming from? Advertisement Gabbard sent a criminal referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi Friday against Obama.
Wall Street Journal
8 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Trump Sought Escape on His Summer Golf Vacation. Some Scots Thought Otherwise.
TURNBERRY, Scotland—If President Trump hoped his golfing holiday in Scotland would present a welcome respite from his political headaches at home, the Scots had other plans—or at least some did. At Trump Turnberry Hotel & Resort, home to the president's golf course on Scotland's west coast, hundreds of police were deployed to ring fence the links in anticipation that thousands of people could descend on the site to protest everything from the U.S.'s support for Israel to Trump's policies on immigration.
