Trump Launches into “Obamagate” Conspiracy Theory After Obama Criticizes Dismissal of Flynn Case

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President Donald Trump attacked former President Barack Obama, launching into an “Obamagate” conspiracy after news outlets obtained a tape of a web talk between the former president and members of the Obama Alumni Association in which he said the “rule of law is at risk” in the United States after it emerged the Justice Department dismissed the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

“OBAMAGATE!” Trump wrote. He spent the rest of the night peddling numerous conspiracy theories.

OBAMAGATE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2020
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He got caught, OBAMAGATE! https://t.co/oV6fum0zIS

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2020

“The news over the last 24 hours I think has been somewhat downplayed – about the justice department dropping charges against Michael Flynn,” Obama reportedly said.

“And the fact that there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury [in fact Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI] just getting off scot-free. That’s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic – not just institutional norms – but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk,” he continued. “And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate pretty quickly as we’ve seen in other places.”

Trump was criticized last week for retweeting a conspiracy theory suggesting that Obama “was the one running the Russian hoax.”

“What they did, what the Obama administration did, is unprecedented … and I hope a lot of people will pay a big price because they are dishonest, crooked people. They are scum, human scum,” Trump said yesterday. “[Flynn] was targeted by the Obama administration, and he was targeted in order to try to take down a president.”

Flynn resigned from the White House in disgrace after he provided false information about his communications with the Russian government, particularly after the news of his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador to the United States, became public. He later pleaded guilty to a felony count of “willfully and knowingly” making false statements to the FBI.