President Donald Trump dropped another reference Monday to "Obamagate" and to potential criminal prosecutions tied to the failed Russia investigation, including former President Barack Obama.
The Justice Department is conducting what Trump had called an investigation of the investigators. Trump refused to reveal what the criminal charges from Attorney John Durham's ongoing investigation might be, however, leaving it to the media to read between the lines.
"You know what the crime is," Trump told reporters at the coronavirus task force briefing in the White House Rose Garden. "The crime is very obvious to everybody; you just have to read the newspapers."
Trump was asked about his tweets this weekend, which were apparent retaliation for former President Barack Obama's claims the Trump DOJ was violating the rule of law. Trump called it in a tweet: "the biggest political crime in American history, by far!"
In a potentially related development, Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has declassified a list of Obama administration officials involved in the illegal "unmasking" of Gen. Mike Flynn's conversations with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, ABC News reported.
It has been alleged Obama told former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates of the intercept of Flynn's conversations during a private Oval Office meeting in Obama's final days in office.
In a heavily redacted section of Yates' House Intelligence Committee transcript from Nov. 3, 2017 – which was released to the public last week – she said "I was certainly surprised about it," answering a question about hearing the unmasking of Flynn.
Presidential authority generally allows declassification of information at the White House's discretion, but the unmasking of Flynn might be the subject of the ongoing investigation of Russia probe investigators.
"Obamagate: It's been going on for a long time; it's been going out from before I even got elected," Trump said Monday. "It's a disgrace that it happened, and if you look at what's going on, and if you look at now all this information that's being released and, from what I understand, it's only the beginning.
"Some terrible things happened, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again."
Trump, while offering few specifics, did mention the Justice Department dropping the case against Flynn over prosecutorial misconduct and what Attorney General William Barr called a violation of the rule of law.
"You'll be saying what's going on over the next, over the coming weeks," Trump added in a rebuke of biased media coverage. "I wish you would write honestly about it, but unfortunately you choose not to do so."
Obama spoke up Friday in a private call to donors about the FBI controversy surrounding Flynn, declaring "rule of law is at risk" after the DOJ dropped charges against him. Obama's reference to specific details about Flynn's interactions with the Russian ambassador have fueled some pundits' speculation the scandal over the FBI probe extends to the uppermost levels of the Obama administration.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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