Barack Obama put spies on my trail, says Donald Trump

Donald Trump has accused Barack Obama of directing US intelligence to spy on him.

Then president-elect Donald Trump and Barack Obama during a transition planning meeting in the Oval Office. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump has launched a scathing attack on Barack Obama, accusing him of directing US agencies to spy on him as part of a conspiracy to undermine him before he became US President.

Mr Trump accused Mr Obama and his vice-president, Joe Biden, of abusing intelligence procedures to damage him and his former nat­ional security adviser, Michael Flynn, in the weeks before his inauguration in early 2017.

The President, who has labelled the issue Obamagate, claims the Obama administration used the FBI to try to frame retired Lieutenant General Flynn and therefore Mr Trump about the Russia investigation in January 2017.

“It is a disgrace what’s happened,” he said. “This is the greatest political scam, hoax in the history of our country.”

It was revealed last week that Obama administration officials, including Mr Trump’s Democrat presidential opponent, Mr Biden, sought to “unmask” the identity of General Flynn, who was caught on telephone intercepts with then Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in late December 2016.

The intercepts reveal General Flynn requesting Mr Kislyak not to respond to a series of sanctions the Obama White House was imposing for spying on the US election campaign. Shortly after the Obama administration officials requested the identity of the American in the intercepts be unmasked, as is legal, details of General Flynn’s conversation were leaked to the media.

Trump allies say the Obama administration tried to “set up” General Flynn, who was already the subject of an FBI investigation and who would eventually be charged with lying to the bureau about what he said to Mr Kislyak.

Obama officials say the administration did nothing wrong and that “unmasking” requests to uncover the identity of people on ­intelligence-acquired telephone intercepts were routine. Mr Trump said the behaviour of Obama administration officials, including Mr Biden, was corrupt. The Republican head of the Senate judiciary committee, Lindsey Graham, will hold hearings into the issue next month.

When asked on Monday (AEST) whether he believed Mr Obama orchestrated a plot against him from the Oval Office in his final months, Mr Trump said: “Here’s the thing: It was impossible for it to happen without the man that sits right in that chair in the Oval Office. He knew everything.

“Yes, he probably directed them (intelligence agencies to spy on him), but if he didn’t direct them, he knew everything.

“He was an incompetent president. That’s all I can say. Grossly incompetent.”

He was speaking after Mr Obama delivered a second public attack on him within a week, accusing him of not even pretending to be in charge of the country at a time of national trag­edy with the coronavirus pandemic claiming almost 90,000 lives.

“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” Mr Obama said. “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

Although there is no firm evidence to suggest that either Mr Obama or Mr Biden were trying to sabotage General Flynn or Mr Trump, the President has indicated he will make the issue a centrepiece of his re-election campaign.

“They weren’t after General Flynn. They wanted him to lie about me, make up a story,” Mr Trump said. “If I were a Democrat instead of a Republican, I think everybody would have been in jail a long time ago; and I’m talking with 50-year sentences.

“No other president should have to go through (this) and I’ll tell you, General Flynn and others are heroes. It’s a disgraceful thing. But we caught them in the act. It’s a beautiful thing. And every day we’re seeing more and more information come out.”

General Flynn was charged with and pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his dealings with Mr Kislyak, but this month the Justice Department called for the charges to be dropped, saying the FBI had no grounds to interrogate him. Mr Obama said the decision, backed by Attorney-General William Barr, undermined the rule of law.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia