President Donald Trump reignited his feud with former President Barack Obama Tuesday afternoon, suggesting he thinks Obama should be referred for criminal prosecution regarding his behavior in the lead-up to and after the 2016 election.
Trump’s claims come as he is hoping to wait out growing anger from Republicans following his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.
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WHAT THE GOVERNMENT STILL WON’T REVEAL ABOUT JEFFREY EPSTEIN
Trump hosted Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. at the White House Tuesday, and the president used a question about the Epstein drama as an opportunity to lay into the former president.
“Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people,” Trump said, bringing up the report published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday alleging that the Obama White House sought to tie Trump’s 2016 campaign to Russia, even after intelligence community assessments suggested that Russia wasn’t directly meddling in the election.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggested Friday that the Justice Department should investigate the people named in the report, and Trump confirmed Tuesday he wants Obama and former President Joe Biden included on that list.
“Based on what I read, and I read pretty much what you read, it would be President Obama. He started it, and Biden was there with him, and Comey was there, and Clapper. The whole group was there,” he told reporters. “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.”
Still, even if the Justice Department were to prosecute Obama administration officials over their statements and actions regarding the 2016 election, the statute of limitations could limit the likelihood of building a case.
Despite Trump’s focus on the alleged Obama conspiracy, it seems unlikely to supplant the Epstein story in public discourse.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) earned unanimous approval to subpoena Epstein’s business partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for her crimes, for a closed-door deposition. Just minutes later, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) canceled votes on Thursday in an apparent attempt to send lawmakers home early for the August recess without having to face any new votes seeking to compel the further release of Epstein documents.
On July 7, the Trump administration ignited outrage from within the president’s base by concluding in a memo that Epstein did commit suicide in 2019 and that there was no client list of powerful people to expose, as suggested by top Trump administration officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi.
That claim was met with widespread skepticism from both Republicans and Democrats, and Trump’s attempts to tamp down on those questions from his supporters have not proven successful.
Still, the president has made some efforts toward transparency on the issue, ordering Bondi and the DOJ to begin the process of unsealing the Epstein grand jury testimony. Furthermore, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche began conversations with Maxwell’s legal team on Tuesday about having her sit for a new interview with federal investigators.
WALL STREET JOURNAL GETS THE BOOT FROM TRUMP’S TRIP TO SCOTLAND AFTER EPSTEIN STORY
You can watch Trump’s comments in full below.