Legal professionals are cautioning that President Donald Trump may encounter challenges in prosecuting former President Barack Obama after alleging treason, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling from the previous year.
In the case of Trump v. United States, the Supreme Court determined that a president’s immunity from criminal prosecution extends to all “official acts.”
These allegations arose when Tulsi Gabbard, who serves as Trump’s director of national intelligence, claimed that Obama and his senior officials “manufactured and politicized intelligence to establish the foundation for what was essentially a prolonged coup against President Trump” following Trump’s victory in the 2016 election.
Gabbard announced her intention to submit a “criminal referral” to the Department of Justice and the FBI.
“The evidence we have uncovered and disclosed directly implicates President Obama in orchestrating the fabrication of this intelligence assessment,” Gabbard stated.
On Wednesday night, Fox News legal analyst Greg Jarrett engaged in a discussion with anchor Sean Hannity and Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan regarding the fabricated Trump-Russia narrative.
“John Brennan. John Brennan, when he testified before Congress, Chairman Gowdy posed a series of inquiries. I believe he was not forthcoming with Congress, particularly concerning the dossier. I revisited some of that transcript. A clip was aired earlier today on your esteemed network. I believe John Brennan misled Congress, which is not permissible. Now, again, the statute of limitations and other factors will need to be considered, but I greatly appreciate what Tulsi has accomplished and the efforts that Pam is now undertaking to pursue these individuals and uncover the truth,” Jordan asserted.
“If the ongoing conspiracy includes, for instance, the raid on Mar-a-Lago and subsequent events, that is when the statute of limitations begins to apply. Therefore, that should not pose a barrier. However, it is worth noting that Barack Obama ought to express gratitude to Donald Trump. Why? Because he received from the U.S. Supreme Court the very type of immunity that will safeguard Barack Obama.”
Gabbard has made public a previously unreleased report from 2020 that was prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Dated September 18, 2020, the report originated from an investigation that was initiated by then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif. At the time of the report’s release, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was the chair of the committee.
The focus of the committee’s investigation was the development of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, which underscored how then-CIA Director John Brennan pushed for the inclusion of the now-discredited anti-Trump dossier, despite being aware that it was primarily based on “internet rumor.”
The report indicates that the ICA was a “high-profile product ordered by the President, directed by senior IC agency heads, and created by just five CIA analysts, using one principal drafter.”
“Production of the ICA was subject to unusual directives from the President and senior political appointees, particularly the DCIA,” the report notes. “The draft was not adequately coordinated within the CIA or the IC, which ensured its publication without significant challenges to its conclusions.”
The committee determined that the five CIA analysts and the drafter “rushed” the production of the ICA “to publish it two weeks prior to President-elect Trump’s inauguration.”
The report mentions that Brennan “ordered the post-election publication of 15 reports containing previously collected but unpublished intelligence, three of which were substandard—featuring information that was unclear, of uncertain origin, potentially biased, or implausible—and these became foundational sources for the ICA judgments that Putin preferred Trump over Clinton.”
“The ICA misrepresented these reports as reliable, failing to disclose their significant underlying flaws,” the committee concluded.
“A single vague, ambiguous, and unverified fragment of a sentence from one of the inferior reports represents the sole classified information referenced to imply that Putin ‘desired’ to assist Trump in winning,” the report indicates, further stating that the ICA “overlooked or selectively referenced credible intelligence reports that contested—and in certain instances weakened—the assessments that Putin aimed to elect Trump.”
Furthermore, the committee noted that two senior CIA officials cautioned Brennan that “we lack direct evidence that Putin intended to facilitate Trump’s election.”
Nevertheless, in spite of these warnings, the Obama administration proceeded to release the ICA regardless.
The ICA “failed to reference any report in which Putin explicitly stated that aiding Trump in winning was the goal.”
