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WASHINGTON – President Trump has embarked on a new and aggressive push to rewrite the narrative of Russia’s investigation by making obscure and unsubstantiated allegations that former President Barack Obama devised a sinister plan to bring him down.
On Twitter, on television, in the Rose Garden, and even on an official White House social media page, Trump in recent days has targeted his most recent predecessor in a way that no incumbent president has in the past. modern times, accusing Mr. Obama of indefinite and unspecified crimes under the vague but politically charged phrase “Obamagate”.
The President went even further on Thursday to demanding that Mr. Obama be brought before the Senate “To testify about the greatest political crime and scandal in the history of the United States,” a scenario that in itself has no precise precedent in the history of the United States. Within hours, Trump’s most loyal Republican ally in the Senate immediately announced that he would indeed investigate, although he would probably not call Obama.
In throwing incendiary charges against his predecessor, Trump has offered no evidence and has not even specified what “crime” he was accusing the former president of committing. Instead, Trump appeared to be linking the investigation into special adviser Robert S. Mueller III, which angered him for years, back to Obama as he sinisterly hinted at upcoming revelations that will bolster his claims.
In addition to diverting attention from the coronavirus pandemic, Trump’s focus on Obama allows him to try to turn the tables on his accusers by making them corrupt while also targeting his Democratic challenger, former vice president. Joseph R. Biden Jr., on the defensive.
“This was all Obama, it was all Biden,” Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network that aired Thursday. “These people were corrupt, everything was corrupt and we caught them. We caught them. “
When asked by hostess Maria Bartiromo if he believed Obama had ordered US intelligence agencies to spy on him, Trump agreed, without evidence.
“Yes, he probably directed them,” Trump said. “But if he did not direct them, he knew everything, and you will see it,” he continued, adding that the documents would be published soon to reinforce his charges.
No evidence has emerged that prior to the November 2016 election, Mr. Obama was involved in the F.B.I. investigation into Trump’s advisers and any links to interference from the Russian campaign, much less than he directed, although its existence had been reported in the media. In January 2017, Obama was told about phone calls between Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, and the Russian ambassador discussing the sanctions that the outgoing president had just imposed on Moscow in response to his attempted electoral sabotage.
But Mr. Trump’s allies suggest that the requests indicated that Mr. Obama’s aides must have been involved in the attempt to “establish” Mr. Flynn, who was interviewed by F.B.I. agents after Obama left office and finally pleaded guilty to lying to them. Attorney General William P. Barr last week he moved to dismiss the case, concluding that the F.B.I. he had no basis to interview Mr. Flynn, a decision that Mr. Obama later said undermines the rule of law.
Trump’s attacks have been amplified by Fox News, other conservative media, and his reelection apparatus. It has even used its government platform to advance the charges, publishing an “Obamagate” campaign-style video on the White House official Facebook page, an openly partisan message that would have been seen as crossing a line in past administrations.
Trump has often issued complaints against political opponents with sensational but unspecific allegations, leaving advisers to follow and try to complete the lines. In this case, Trump hopes his intelligence appointments will disclose enough information to muddy the waters and give a patina of confusion about what Obama may have done, according to people familiar with his thinking.
Other presidents have quarreled with their predecessors over politics or politics, sometimes even arguing publicly. But aside from Richard M. Nixon and Watergate, no incumbent president in modern times has explicitly and aggressively accused a former president of criminality.
“What makes Trump’s attacks so egregious in contrast to his predecessors is how he simply makes up scandals out of thin air, cooking conspiracies unrelated to historical events,” said Matthew Dallek, a presidential historian at George Washington University.
Trump returned to Obama in March 2017, two days after Jeff Sessions, then the attorney general, withdrew from the investigation into Russian electoral interference, a move that angered the president and led to the appointment of Mueller.
The president lashed out again last weekend after press reports of Obama’s criticism of Barr’s decision to deny Flynn’s guilty plea.
Trump started using the term “Obamagate” on Sunday, but declined to explain what specific crime he was claiming when asked by the Washington Post journalist the next day. “You know what the crime is,” said the president with irritation. “Crime is very obvious to everyone. All you have to do is read the newspapers except yours.
He hasn’t explained it yet, but on Thursday morning he urged Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to open an investigation.
“If I were a senator or a congressman, the first person I would call to testify about the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the United States, by FAR, is former President Obama.” Trump wrote on Twitter. “He knew EVERYTHING. Do it @LindseyGrahamSC, just do it. No more mr kind. No more chats! “
Less than two hours later, Mr. Graham announced hearings on the Flynn case and other matters, including whether Mr. Mueller should have been named in the first place. Mueller The investigation concluded that Russia mounted a major operation to tilt the 2016 election to Mr. Trump and that there were multiple contacts with Mr. Trump’s associates, but found insufficient evidence to charge a criminal conspiracy.
“To say that we are living in unusual times is an understatement” Graham said in a statement. “We have the acting president (Trump) accusing the former president (Obama) of being part of a treacherous conspiracy to undermine his presidency. We have the former president suggesting that the current president is destroying the rule of law by dismissing General Flynn’s case. “
Still, Graham poured cold water on the idea of calling Obama. “Both presidents,” he added, “are welcome to come before the committee and share their mutual concerns. If nothing else it would be great television. However, I have great doubts about whether it would be wise for the country.”
The F.B.I. It opened its investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign in July 2016, shortly after WikiLeaks published thousands of internal Democratic Party emails that intelligence officials believed had been hacked by Russian intelligence agents. The investigation, The code, called Crossfire Hurricane, was handled by a small group of law enforcement and intelligence officers, who did not inform White House officials of the investigation, according to accounts that have emerged since then.
During their search, intelligence officers found records of the phone calls, which had been intercepted by the National Security Agency as part of their regular surveillance of Russian officials. In one of the calls, Mr. Flynn had urged Russia not to retaliate over the sanctions, as a seemingly friendlier new administration prepared to take office.
Obama discussed the calls during a January 5 meeting in the Oval Office with James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director; James R. Clapper Jr., director of national intelligence; and other officials. After the meeting, Obama told Sally Yates, the deputy attorney general, that “he did not want any additional information on the matter,” according to a recently revealed interview that Ms. Yates gave to the F.B.I.
Four days after Obama left office, Comey sent F.B.I. Agents to interview Mr. Flynn about calls with Mr. Kislyak. Mr. Flynn’s responses led to him being accused of lying to investigators, of which he pleaded guilty. Later he tried to change his request and Mr. Barr agreed. A an apparently skeptical judge will decide whether to allow it.
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting from New York, and Mark Mazzetti and Adam Goldman from Washington.
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