Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer in a Friday interview said the Trump administration will need to address its allegations that former President Obama manipulated intelligence related to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
President Trump urged the Justice Department (DOJ) to deep dive into Obama and his officials in late July when Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard sent criminal referrals to the DOJ following a report accusing Obama’s team of engaging in a “treasonous conspiracy.”
“If these guys keep pumping out this stuff and declassifying things and don’t go anywhere, you think Epstein was bad, you’re going to piss off a lot of people if they don’t act,” Spicer said during a Friday appearance on “The Morning Meeting.”
In response to the report released by Gabbard, the president said multiple former White House staffers would be charged with crimes.
“Based on what I read, and I read pretty much what you read, it would be President Obama. He started it,” Trump said on July 22, when asked who the DOJ should target.
“And [then-vice president Joe] Biden was there with him and [former FBI director James] Comey was there and [former DNI director James] Clapper, the whole group was there. [Former CIA director John] Brennan. They were all there in a room, right here, this was the room,” he added.
Spicer said the public won’t back off an information hunt regarding Obama’s alleged wrongdoing.
“So I think they’re creating the impression that things will happen, and there better be some kind of follow-up. People who dealt with this issue are a hell of a lot more vocal than they are on Epstein. And I think you’re getting a lot of people’s hopes up,” Spicer said.
“So I don’t know yet, but I feel like they’ve started to create the expectation that there will be something and people want [that].”
However, Obama’s office said the president’s claims are “bizarre” and timely considering the backlash received by the Trump administration for not producing more information as it relates to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.
“These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesperson for Obama, said in a July statement sent to NewsNation, The Hill’s sister company.
“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. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio,” he added in response to Gabbard’s report.
Former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also wrote a joint op-ed to reject Trump’s claims.
“Every serious review has substantiated the intelligence community’s fundamental conclusion that the Russians conducted an influence campaign intended to help Mr. Trump win the 2016 election,” the two wrote.
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