Tulsi Gabbard’s ‘treason’ allegation triggers an Obama world high-wire act

To former aides who worked in Barack Obama’s White House, the Trump administration’s allegations of “treason” carried the stench of desperation from a president straining to shift the focus from a burgeoning scandal around Jeffrey Epstein.

Still, they’re grappling with how to contain the unprecedented accusations National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has leveled, even as they dismiss them as asinine, interviews with more than half a dozen people who worked in Obama’s White House or on his campaigns reveal.

These people say the events of the last week have turned into a messaging balancing act between unnecessarily giving oxygen to the claims that Obama ordered a false intelligence analysis to show Russia had worked to help Trump win the 2016 election and leaving the potential for unchecked accusations to balloon. Many of those who talked to NBC News were not authorized to speak publicly about strategy.

“The battle now is to play this even to make sure that thoughts don’t start to creep into more mainstream” audiences, a former Obama administration official said. That person said it was important to reach “mainstream Republicans,” who would listen to editorial boards and those in Congress who deemed the allegations against Obama as “beyond the pale.”

Some expressed uncertainty over what to expect next from Trump or his lieutenants, charging that the administration could grow more bullish to draw attention away from a string of explosive Epstein stories that Trump is struggling to tamp down. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it has said there is merit to accusations around Obama.

“I don’t know what is ahead, and I don’t know what their plans and intentions are,” John Brennan, who was CIA director in the Obama administration, told NBC News. “I just find all of this very troubling when it is being done by individuals who serve in such important positions and know what they are doing is wrong.”

Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper echoed Brennan’s ambiguity over the Trump administration’s intentions, telling CNN he would “lawyer up.”

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe leveled claims last week that Obama administration officials manipulated intelligence and conspired to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s electoral victory in 2016. Gabbard posted on social media last Friday that she was making a criminal referral to the Justice Department. Then, this week, she stepped up publicity around the accusations from the White House briefing room.

Broadly, the former Obama aides unequivocally say that there is zero merit to the allegations and that they do not believe they will lead anywhere. They point to a 2020 Senate investigation, which endorsed intelligence agencies’ assessment that Russia had spread disinformation online and leaked stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee to undermine Hillary Clinton’s 2016 candidacy and help Trump. Trump-appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio was the acting chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, which endorsed the findings.

“There is no factual basis for the allegations that Tulsi Gabbard is making. She’s cherry-picking things from various documents that are out of context and mischaracterized,” Brennan said.

“To me, it’s clear either she has not read the intelligence community assessment or she is purposely, willfully lying about the contents,” he added.

Obama allies also say the timing of the allegations is suspect. They emerged as Trump has struggled to contend with his own base after his administration announced it would not release more documents tied to Epstein, a convicted sex offender who faced a litany of allegations of abuse of underage women before he died by suicide.

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch, reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that his name appears in the Epstein files — even though he told reporters this month that Bondi had not informed him that he was named.

In the midst of a firestorm Trump has yet to shake, the administration brought out the allegations against Obama. Over the weekend, Trump reposted a fake AI-generated video of Obama being arrested on social media.

Once Gabbard used the word “treason,” Obama’s team ramped up its messaging, leading Obama’s spokesperson to release a carefully worded statement. It denounced Gabbard’s accusations without mentioning Epstein, because it was “below the dignity of the former president,” a former Obama administration official said.

“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement this week. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”

Ned Price, who held roles under Obama as a special assistant to the president, a National Security Council senior director and spokesperson and as a CIA senior analyst under Obama and George W. Bush, said he believed it was imperative to reach conservative audiences with a response. On Wednesday, he wrote an opinion piece for Fox News titled: “Americans should beware of Gabbard’s ‘dangerous distraction’ with revisionist history of 2016 election.”

“This wasn’t a piece I would have written for any mainstream or left-of-center outlet. This was designed solely and exclusively for Fox News, because that’s where this fire of disinformation is raging,” Price said in an interview. “I thought it was important … to inject facts into that very venue in the hope that at least a few people would read it and be exposed to what actually transpired in 2016.”