Trump says this former president ‘owes me big’ after accusing him of treason
One of President Donald Trump's predecessors "owes [him] big," the current president said after he claimed, without evidence, that he committed treason.
On Friday, Trump spoke with reporters outside the White House as he was about to leave for Scotland. After the president was asked about Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, Trump answered by changing the topic.
"People should really focus on how well the country is doing or they should focus on the fact that [former President] Barack Hussein Obama led a coup," Trump said before he added that he had "nothing to do with the guy [Epstein]."
When asked about how the Supreme Court's decision on presidential immunity in 2024 could protect Obama despite Trump's accusations, Trump told a reporter, "It probably helps him a lot... He's done criminal acts, no question about it, but he has immunity."
"Obama owes me big," Trump added.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution for "official acts" made during their presidency.
This decision came after Trump, in his first term, was accused of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results after he lost to former President Joe Biden.
The 44th president's name has been in the news after National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard claimed that the Obama administration used a "contrived narrative" to suggest that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. That year, Trump won against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
But Gabbard also declassified documents that she believes point to a "treasonous conspiracy" led by Obama to undermine Trump, according to a statement from Gabbard's office .
Obama pushed back on the Trump administration's claims and pointed to a 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee report that supported Special Counsel Robert Mueller's findings that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election in favor of Trump.
"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 said in a statement on July 22 obtained by USA Today .
He added that the claims were bizarre and called them a "weak attempt at distraction."
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