President Trump urges a criminal probe of Barack Obama, accusing him of leading intelligence efforts behind the Russia investigation.

Trump Demands Criminal Investigation of Obama and Top Officials

President Donald Trump has called for a full criminal investigation of former President Barack Obama, accusing him of orchestrating the intelligence operations that spurred the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion investigation. The demand comes in the wake of newly declassified documents released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, which allege that Obama and senior members of his national security team manufactured and politicized intelligence regarding Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. election.

Gabbard’s disclosures, made public this week, cite “overwhelming evidence” that Obama administration officials, despite contradictory information from the intelligence community, created a narrative suggesting Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential race. The documents name several senior officials, including James Clapper, John Brennan, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Loretta Lynch, and Andrew McCabe, as having been involved in the process.

On Monday, Gabbard submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice based on these findings. The Justice Department has not disclosed which officials the referral targets, and requests for comment from those named have gone unanswered.

Speaking from the Oval Office during a meeting with the president of the Philippines, Trump insisted that Obama was at the center of what he described as a coordinated effort to undermine his presidency. “President Obama. He started it,” Trump asserted. “Biden was there with him, and Comey was there, and Clapper, the whole group was there. Brennan. They were all there in the room right here. This is the room.”

Trump also claimed his administration possesses extensive documentation about the origins of the investigation, stating that “from what Tulsi told me, she’s got thousands of additional documents coming.” He attributed the operation’s concept to Obama and linked it to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who he said spent $12 million on the discredited Steele dossier.

The anti-Trump dossier, compiled by Christopher Steele and funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, served as the foundation for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Although widely viewed within the intelligence community as unreliable, top officials including Comey and Brennan reportedly advocated for its use in official assessments.

“It took two years to figure that out, but it came out that it was a total fake report – it was made-up fiction – and they used that,” Trump said, calling the Steele report “a disaster – all lies, all fabrication, all admitted fraud.”

Declassified Documents Reveal Internal Briefings

Additional documents describe a July 2016 briefing in which John Brennan reportedly informed President Obama about a Clinton campaign effort to “vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.” Following this briefing, the CIA sent the information to FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok, which initiated the investigation code-named “Crossfire Hurricane.”

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who took over the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation, ultimately concluded in 2019 that there was no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. However, subsequent inquiries, including that of Special Counsel John Durham, found that the FBI failed to act on warnings about efforts to influence the process for political gain.

As of now, both Comey and Brennan are subjects of ongoing criminal investigations, launched by FBI Director Kash Patel. Trump and his allies continue to press for accountability, arguing that the country has never seen a case of such magnitude and calling for the immediate release of all related documentation. The outcome of these investigations may have far-reaching implications for U.S. intelligence oversight and the credibility of past and future election probes.