WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that former President Barack Obama “owes me big” for a US Supreme Court ruling that grants immunity for presidential acts.
Trump — who scored the sweeping ruling last year — had accused Obama earlier this week of treason and sedition for ordering up a spy-agency report on Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 election.
“It probably helps him a lot — the immunity ruling, but it doesn’t help the people around him at all,” Trump said.
“But it probably helps him a lot. He’s done criminal acts, there’s no question about it, but he has immunity.
“He owes me big. Obama owes me big,” the prez said while departing the White House for a trip to Scotland.
Trump on Tuesday accused Obama of being the “leader of the gang” of officials who he said conspired to misinform the public and gin up investigations into whether Trump colluded with the Kremlin to defeat Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The Russian collusion claims sparked long-running and leaky FBI and congressional probes that consumed more than half of Trump’s first term of office.
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard sent a criminal referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi last week raising the possibility that Obama broke the law.
An email released by Gabbard showed that Obama ordered an intelligence assessment that eventually found Russia intervened to help Trump defeat Clinton — though Gabbard said US intel actually showed that Russia expected Clinton to win and held back damaging material on her for later release.
After a White House meeting Dec. 9, 2016, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s assistant emailed spy agency leaders asking for an assessment “per the President’s request” to describe “tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election.”
“It’s criminal at the highest level,” Trump said Tuesday.
“President Obama, he started it. And [Joe] Biden was there with him, and [then-FBI Director James] Comey was there, and Clapper — the whole group was there, and [then-CIA Director John] Brennan.
“This is like proof, irrefutable proof that Obama was seditious, that Obama led, was trying to lead a coup — and it was with Hillary Clinton, with all these other people, but Obama headed it up.”
Obama has ripped Trump’s allegations against him.
“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. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one,” Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said.
“These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction. 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.”
The US Supreme Court ruled last July that presidents have absolute or presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts — after Trump became the first former president to face criminal charges.
The case dealt with allegations against Trump by Biden Justice Department-appointed special counsel Jack Smith involving Trump challenging his 2020 election loss.
As he campaigned to return to power, Trump faced a second case from Smith for allegedly mishandling classified documents and two state-level cases by elected Democratic district attorneys for falsifying business records to conceal 2016 hush money payments and to challenge his 2020 loss in Georgia.
Read the full article here
