Donald Trump hastily changed the subject to his years-long bid to seek revenge against Barack Obama after he was questioned about the Jeffrey Epstein files during a meeting Monday with the president of the Philippines at the White House.
The U.S. president accused his first-term predecessor of “sedatious” behavior — apparently mispronouncing “seditious” — and ranted about an imaginary “coup” after Ed O’Keefe of CBS News asked him about the Justice Department reaching out to attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell to request a new interview about Epstein and the sex trafficking ring for which her involvement earned the socialite a 20-year prison sentence in 2022.
“I don’t know about it, but I think it’s something that would be, sounds appropriate to do,” the president said, before telling O’Keefe: “It’s sort of a witch hunt, the continuation of the witch hunt.”
He then said that “the witch hunt you should be talking about” was how Tulsi Gabbard, his director of national intelligence, supposedly “caught President Obama absolutely cold.”
Trump proceeded to rant for several minutes about his long-debunked claims that Barack Obama was engaged in an illegal effort to spy on his campaign, overturn the 2016 election, and spread false information about links between his first campaign for office and Russia.
He previously appointed John Durham, a special prosecutor, to review the origins of that FBI investigation into his 2016 campaign for any criminal behavior in 2019; the probe came up with nothing against Obama or others in his administration, and found no evidence of a “Deep State” conspiracy against Trump.
But Trump insisted to reporters on Tuesday that a memo issued by Gabbard accusing the Obama administration of doctoring intelligence assessments related to Russian influence and hacking efforts during the 2016 election season was the evidence his administration needed to begin criminal prosecutions of the 44th president; his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton; former President Joe Biden, former director of national intelligence James Clapper; and former FBI Director James Comey.
"There should be very severe consequences,” Trump said. “Whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people. Obama has been caught directly.”
“He’s guilty. This was treason,” the president insisted.
It remains unclear why, if Trump and his administration were able to uncover evidence linking a former president, his then-vice president and two of the nation’s top intelligence officials to a criminal conspiracy, such evidence would remain unaddressed for the entirety of his first term in office.
In reality, the president’s accusations of a “coup” against him are the result of a conveniently worded ODNI assessment released by Gabbard, wrongly baselessly accusing the Obama administration of ginning up the threat of Russian cyberattacks for political gain.
Gabbard’s ODNI assessment, released at the end of last week as part of a clear effort by the White House to distract from the Epstein story, dishonestly conflated the Obama administration’s assessment that Russian agents did not directly hack into voting systems or attempt to influence vote totals with an assessment that Russian actors did not interfere with the election at all.
The latter assessment is obviously and patently false. The nation’s intelligence community as well as bipartisan House and Senate investigations found clear evidence to the contrary. Russian-aligned actors hacked into the files of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 primary season and released stolen documents online, stirring up division within Trump’s opponents, while Russian-backed misinformation efforts using bot farms and other methods flourished on social media, mainly fueling criticism of Hillary Clinton.
Epstein-related fallout continues to be a massive problem for the White House, motivating Trump to seek red meat to throw to his base. The House Oversight Committee voted on bipartisan lines Tuesday to issue a subpoena for the testimony of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, now imprisoned for her role in his crimes.
The Justice Department and FBI announced in early July that no list exists compiling the convicted pedophile’s known associates, which many speculate includes powerful figures in American society with whom Epstein cultivated personal relationships during his life.
Arrested on the same sex trafficking charges that later led to Maxwell’s conviction, Epstein died in 2019 in federal custody. His death in federal custody was ruled a suicide. The Justice Department released video of an area outside Epstein’s cell which contained at least a full minute of missing footage, drawing further speculation.
On Thursday of last week the Wall Street Journal published the contents of a birthday note the paper alleged was authored by Trump for Epstein’s 50th birthday celebration in 2003. The contents of the note hint at a “secret” shared by the two men.
Trump, in response, denied the note’s authenticity and called the reporting “fake news” before launching a libel suit against the WSJ.
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