Recent days have seen a series of revelations relating to misconduct by Obama administration officials. Today DNI Tulsi Gabbard confirmed in a press conference that she has referred allegations against Barack Obama, among others, to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation:
On Wednesday, Gabbard confirmed during a White House press briefing that her office has officially referred Obama to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation over his leading role in the conspiracy.
“Do you believe that any of this new information implicates former President Obama in criminal behavior?” a reporter asked.
“We have referred and will continue to refer all of these documents to the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate the criminal implications of this,” Gabbard replied.
When asked point blank if that includes the former president himself, Gabbard didn’t flinch. “Correct,” she replied. “The evidence that we have found and that we have released directly point to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment. There are multiple pieces of evidence and intelligence that confirm that fact.”
A second reporter followed up, referencing Gabbard’s recent statement accusing Obama of helping to lead a coup against President Trump. “Do you believe President Obama is guilty of treason?” he asked.
Gabbard stopped short of personally issuing a legal judgment but made it clear what she believes took place. “I’m leaving the criminal charges to the Department of Justice. I am not an attorney,” she said. “But as I have said previously, when you look at the intent behind creating a fake manufactured intelligence document that directly contradicts multiple assessments that were created by the intelligence community, the expressed intent and what followed afterward can only be described as a years-long coup and a treasonous conspiracy against the American people, our republic, and an attempt to undermine President Trump’s administration.”
The recent revelations have been interesting, but they are consistent with what we have known for a long time. The Obama administration, including the CIA and the FBI, coordinated with the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, as well as Democratic Party press outlets, to propagate the absurd lie that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. The nature of that supposed conspiracy was never clear, of course: Russia placed an insignificant number of Facebook ads, supporting various candidates (Trump, Jill Stein, Bernie Sanders) and opposing others (Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio). So what?
But the Democrats rode the Russia collusion hoax for years, and it did serious damage to Trump’s first term, even though it never made any sense and was supported by no evidence.
We have known this for a long time. You can start with Andrew McCarthy’s 2019 Ball of Collusion,, and more has come out since. The best contribution the Trump administration can make is to release more emails and other documents that fill in the details of the long-known Democratic Party plot.
Conservatives are now salivating at the thought of people like Barack Obama, James Comey, and John Brennan in handcuffs and orange jump suits. But the obvious question is, what crime did they commit? It is not enough to toss around the word “treason.” Treason is aiding an enemy in time of war. Telling lies and misrepresenting intelligence to drag down a Republican administration is reprehensible, but it is not treason. And it is not a crime to tell lies in order to gain political advantage or to harm a political opponent. It happens all the time.
This is not to say that Obama, Brennan, Comey et al. might not be guilty of some federal crime. The federal criminal code is capacious–much too capacious to suit any conservative. So maybe there is a crime that fits these facts. But it is incumbent on us conservatives–and, of course, especially incumbent on the Department of Justice–to consider soberly what criminal charges might lie, and against whom, and not to get carried away with fantasies of retribution.
Yes, it is true that the Democrats brought absurd criminal charges against Donald Trump when he was an ex-president. I did nothing but litigation for 41 years, and I am not sure I ever saw as dumb a case as the ones the Democrats brought against Trump. But that doesn’t mean that Republicans should now bring equally baseless criminal charges.
Now, more than ever, the administration should release documents as it is able, so that the public, along with DOJ, can carefully consider whether criminal charges against Obama administration officials are appropriate. And those charges should be brought only if they are more than ordinarily well-founded. More likely than not, the ultimate remedy for the Democratic Party’s misdeeds is political, not legal.
