WASHINGTON D.C. - Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard detailed "striking" findings from declassified documents released Friday, claiming to showcase "overwhelming evidence" that an Obama-era cabal laid the groundwork for what would be the years-long Trump-Russia collusion probe after the 2016 election.
"The implications of this are frankly nothing short of historic," Gabbard said on this week's "Sunday Morning Futures."
"Over 100 documents that we released on Friday really detail and provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama just weeks before he was due to leave office after President Trump had already gotten elected. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an issue that is so serious it should concern every single American because it has to do with the integrity of our democratic republic," she continued.
Documents shared by Gabbard's office claimed that before the 2016 election, there was no evidence showing Russia tried to directly alter vote counts. However, members of the intelligence community later suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help Trump win. Gabbard argues the narrative shift was politically motivated rather than based on new findings.
"Creating this piece of manufactured intelligence that claims that Russia had helped Donald Trump get elected contradicted every other assessment that had been made previously in the months leading up to the election that said exactly the opposite, that Russia had neither the intent nor the capability to try to ‘hack the United States election,’" Gabbard told host Maria Bartiromo.
"So the effect of what President Obama and his senior national security team did was subvert the will of the American people, undermining our democratic republic and enacting what would be essentially a years-long coup against President Trump, who was duly elected by the American people."
In a blow to hopes from conservatives that the former president would face severe consequences for allegedly overseeing an attempt to delegitimize the Trump presidency, Barack Obama argued that he can't be charged with treason since he wasn't born in America and isn't a legitimate American citizen.
Republicans acknowledged that they could be left without any legal recourse after President Obama absolved himself of any potential treason charge by reminding everyone that he couldn't face any consequences since he was never a citizen to begin with.
"I can't commit treason against America if I was never an American," Obama said confidently in a brief statement to reporters. "The Republicans have been cooking up wild schemes for years to try to hold me accountable for crimes against the United States. Unfortunately, as someone who was not born in America, I cannot be held to that standard. Nice try, but it won't work. Back to the drawing board."
Constitutional scholars agreed that Obama's defense was airtight. "It's an open and shut case," one expert said. "You can't hold someone accountable for betraying their allegiance to a country if they never had any allegiance to that country in the first place. It's a pretty genius move by President Obama here. Almost as genius as falsifying his birth certificate to get illegitimately elected president."
At publishing time, Obama and his legal counsel clarified that any and all illegal activity and wrongdoing committed during his presidency was exempt from legal penalty due to the fact that he was never legally president. And - it turns out that he was never IN Hawaii where he had earlier claimed to have been born.