Donald Trump has been intensely focused on Barack Obama in recent days, accusing his Democratic predecessor of “treason.” Now the current president is saying the former president “owes” him.
“He owes me, Obama owes me big,” Trump said July 25 while speaking to reporters outside the White House before departing on a trip to Scotland.
Obama’s debt to Trump in the current president’s mind? The fact that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts in office. The ruling came in a case involving Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Struggling to shake off questions about his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, Trump has focused lately on leveling allegations against Obama.
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard alleged in a press briefing that the Obama administration promoted a “contrived narrative” that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump. Gabbard released declassified documents she said support her claims of Obama’s “treasonous conspiracy” to undermine Trump.
The Justice Department also announced the formation of a “Strike Force” that would “investigate potential next legal steps” stemming from Gabbard’s disclosures.
Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 presidential election in favor of Trump, according to former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 final report and a 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee assessment.
Obama’s office pointed to the Senate report in responding to Gabbard’s claims.
“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,” Obama’s office said in a statement on July 22. “These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.”
Trump had long said the investigations into his first White House campaign and its connections with Moscow are a hoax. Before departing for Scotland, Trump claimed Obama committed “criminal acts” but “he has immunity” from prosecution.
“It probably helps him a lot, probably helps him a lot the immunity ruling,” Trump said.
Trump has faced intense backlash since the Department of Justice released a memo July 7 attempting to close the book on the Epstein case. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors. The memo supported the idea that Epstein died by suicide and said investigators did not find a “client list,” dispelling conspiracy theories about the case.
Obama’s office said Trump’s focus on the former president is a “weak attempt at distraction.”
“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,” Obama’s office said in the July 22 statement. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.”
Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump says Barack Obama ‘owes me, Obama owes me big.’
