Donald Trump refers Obama for 'criminal' investigation over unfounded 'coup' claims

US President Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has referred Barack Obama to the Department of Justice for "criminal" investigation into unfounded "treason" allegations. She claims that the 44th US President ordered intelligence assessments to be rigged to include the assertion that Russia was working directly to elect Donald Trump in 2016.

During a White House briefing on Wednesday (July 23), Ms Gabbard ranted about a "coup" supposedly launched by Mr Obama. When asked by a reporter: "Do you believe that President Obama is guilty of treason?", Ms Gabbard responded: "I'm leaving the criminal charges to the DOJ. The expressed intent and what followed afterwards can only be described as a years-long coup and treasonous conspiracy against the American people." She made a surprise appearance at the White House press briefing just hours after she made public a declassified report from House Republicans that was produced during the first Trump administration.

While the report does not dispute the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the election, it alleges tradecraft failings in how intelligence officials reached the conclusion that Vladimir Putin intended to have Mr Trump win.

The release of the report, which comes as Mr Trump faces backlash over the handling of records from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, is part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to rewrite the history of Russian election interference.

Wednesday's report comes days after Gabbard issued a similar report on Friday (July 18), accusing the Obama administration of pressuring intelligence officials to conclude the Russian government favoured Mr Trump's victory.

In a rare statement published this week, Mr Obama condemned the Trump administration's latest claims.

"I have declassified a (House Intelligence Committee) oversight majority staff report that exposes how the Obama Administration manufactured the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that they knew was false, promoting the LIE that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government helped President Trump win the 2016 election," Ms Gabbard said in a statement.

"In doing so, they conspired to subvert the will of the American people, working with their partners in the media to promote the lie, in order to undermine the legitimacy of President Trump, essentially enacting a years-long coup against him."