Latest news with #coup
The Independent
5 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump's Obama ‘Russia-gate' push offers the MAGA Epstein crowd a head on a plate. Here's why he can't deliver on that promise
But she, like the president himself, is likely to see her efforts end in the same murky water where the dreams of prosecuting Hillary Clinton died during Trump's first term in office. On Wednesday, the White House trotted out the Director of National Intelligence, alongside press secretary Karoline Leavitt, to brief reporters on an intel review that Gabbard had led. She told reporters that new evidence pointed to the involvement of former president Barack Obama and top officials in a supposed campaign to alter the conclusions of intelligence assessments, in order to forge a link between Trump and Russia where none supposedly existed. It was an old theory with a new twist, which Gabbard laid out as an apparent years-long 'coup' attempt against Trump. She argued that Obama, along with former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, and former FBI chief James Comey, knowingly changed official intelligence assessments to explain the scope of the nefarious activity Russia was up to in 2016. 'The implications of this are far reaching and have to do with the integrity of our democratic republic,' Gabbard claimed. 'It has to do with an outgoing President taking action to manufacture intelligence, to undermine and usurp the will of the American people in that election and launch what would be a years long coup against the incoming president United States, Donald Trump.' It's here where Donald Trump and the White House's call for 'justice' and 'accountability' (two words Leavitt and Gabbard floated Wednesday) runs out of gas. The White House directed the appointment of a special counsel to look at the origins of the Russia investigation in 2019, the probe, led by John Durham, found no evidence of criminal activity committed by Obama or other members of his administration. And given how the federal statute of limitations works, the clock is ticking for Trumpworld to take a second crack at delivering the retribution the president has long threatened to levy against his enemies. Under federal law, most criminal charges have a statute of limitation of five years, meaning that the entirety of the 'Russiagate' probe's duration now falls outside of the legal window for criminal prosecution. To be clear, this obviously does not apply to all crimes. It doesn't apply to murder, or sexual abuse. It also doesn't apply to treason, which Trumpworld has long (and unseriously) suggested charging Obama and others with. Trump again made that specific accusation in the wake of Gabbard's memo being published last week. Nor does it apply to another criminal count that could be leveled agains the former president and members of his team in a last-ditch attempt to make something stick: conspiracy against rights. That latter charge carries a statute of limitations of ten years, not five, and as a result it's by far the most likely avenue for federal prosecutors to take if a real effort is made to deliver on Trump's promised vengeance. The New York Post reported that some of Trump's allies view it as their best shot. But their opponents say even that would be a fool's errand. 'These bizarre claims against President Obama are a made up farrago of malicious nonsense. The context makes clear that this is an effort to distract from Trump's major Epstein problem,' Norm Eisen, a constitutional scholar and co-counsel for the first Trump impeachment effort in 2020, said in a statement to The Independent on Wednesday. Eisen continued: 'We at Democracy Defenders Fund have filed a legal demand under the freedom of information act for the Trump - Epstein documents and if we do not get them we will be litigating. But there is no basis for charging Obama with any crime irrespective of the statute of limitations, and plucking an offense out of thin air simply because it has a longer statute of limitations just highlights the baselessness of it all. ' At Wednesday's briefing Gabbard deflected questions on potential charges to Attorney General Pam Bondi, possibly the most embattled member of Trump's Cabinet thanks to the uproar over the DOJ's declaration that a list of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's clients did not exist. 'I'm leaving the criminal charges to the Department of Justice. I am not an attorney,' said Gabbard. In reality, the DOJ has gone nearly a week since the publication of a memo outlining the ODNI's newest review, and the Justice Department hasn't uttered a peep in terms of plans to launch investigations following up on Gabbard's findings, despite the ODNI claimin that all evidence was referred to Bondi's office. A spokesperson for Obama, meanwhile, issued a rare statement on Tuesday calling the accusations 'bizarre' and correctly noting that 'nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but didn't successfully manipulate any votes.' This is true. The ODNI assessment released by Gabbard relied heavily on Gabbard's conflation of the finding that Russian actors did not launch cyberattacks against voting platforms with a finding that Russia had not interfered at all, the latter of which was not true. Like the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020, the Department of Justice and other agencies found that Russian actors worked to push influence campaigns on social media platforms aimed at sowing disinformation. On Wednesday, Gabbard and Leavitt presented that conclusion anew by inferring that Russia did interfere, but without the goal of helping either major candidate in the race. Conspiracy against rights would be an ironic charge for Trump's team to level against the former president. It's one of the same charges he himself was accused of after the 2020 election in a criminal probe launched by Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed under the Biden administration. It would be a difficult one to get to stick to the former president, however, as it would require that Trump's prosecutors prove the existence of an organized plot between Obama and his advisers to keep Trump out of the White House — something even Gabbard didn't allege on Wednesday, as the ODNI probe did not turn up any evidence of a concerted scheme. The Biden White House tried for 4 years to launch successful criminal prosecutions aimed at holding Donald Trump accountable. His attempts to overturn the election and his handling of classified materials after leaving the presidency both triggered criminal charges; in both cases, the DOJ was too slow to bring the case to trial, and the charges were dismissed after Trump's 2024 election victory. Trump was charged with conspiracy against rights for allegedly conspiring to violate the rights of millions of Americans by working with state legislatures and Congress in a half-cocked bid to throw out the election results pointing to his defeat. It's the same charge down to the letter that Obama would now face from a Trumpified DOJ, were such an effort to be launched. Gabbard, on Wednesday, couldn't answer why those charges weren't pursued during Trump's first term. 'I can't speak to what happened there,' she said Wednesday. 'There were several [directors of national intelligence] under the first Trump administration. President Trump faced many challenges from those who were working in the government who sought to undermine his presidency.'
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Even if Tulsi Gabbard's half-baked conspiracy had any merit, presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts.
Sen. Ted Cruz has admitted that Barack Obama is not going to be charged with treason, despite the Trump administration's attempts to smear the former president to deflect from the Jeffrey Epstein saga. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has accused Obama of engaging in a 'treasonous conspiracy' and 'years-long coup' against President Donald Trump over his administration's investigation of Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election. Trump and his base have eagerly embraced the half-baked conspiracy and called for Obama's arrest, but now the president's own allies have been forced to admit Obama won't be on trial for treason anytime soon.
France 24
9 hours ago
- Politics
- France 24
White House revives 'Obama coup' claim to deflect Epstein scandal
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.
South China Morning Post
14 hours ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
White House pushes Obama ‘coup' story as Epstein questions mount
The White House pulled out all the stops on Wednesday to promote claims that Barack Obama headed a 'treasonous conspiracy' against Donald Trump, seeking to redirect public attention from the uproar over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein affair. Advertisement 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 long-standing argument that investigations into Russia's multilayered 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. White House journalists asking questions on Wednesday. Photo: EPA The Justice Department announced the formation of a 'Strike Force' to examine the allegations with 'utmost seriousness'.
Arab News
17 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
White House pushes Obama ‘coup' story to distract from Epstein
WASHINGTON: 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. 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 concerns about Epstein, including the rumor that his death was actually a murder. 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 by Democrats 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. Several bids for transparency are in the works, including efforts to circumvent Republican leadership and force a vote on releasing files after they return from recess. 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.
