Obama responds after being accused by Trump of fabricating Russian plot: 'These bizarre allegations are ridiculous'

Former Democratic President Barack Obama responded through his spokesman to President Donald Trump's remarks, who accused him on Monday of having fabricated the so-called Russian plot in 2016, when intelligence services investigated his campaign for alleged collusion with Moscow.

"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. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction," President Obama's spokesman, Patrick Rodenbush, said. He insisted that Russia did attempt to impact the 2016 election.

"Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio."

Earlier, Trump had accused Obama of committing treason for, he claimed, ordering the development of "Russiagate."

"He’s guilty … This was treason, this was every word you could think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election," the Republican president said.

Gabbard report stirs up Russian plot.

"Russiagate," now discredited, gained strength and notoriety thanks to the controversial Christopher Steele dossier, a report that contained a series of unverified allegations about alleged collusion between Donald Trump and the Russian government in the 2016 campaign. That report, according to various journalistic investigations and a celebrated 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee report, was funded by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Now, the case regained relevance again after the declassification of an explosive report by the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who denounced last Friday a "treasonous conspiracy" from the Obama administration to subvert Trump's electoral victory over Hillary Clinton.

According to the report, various Intelligence agencies such as the FBI, CIA and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had already concluded prior to the 2016 election that Russia was not attempting to influence the election outcome through cyberattacks. However, according to Gabbard, the Obama administration disregarded the Intelligence Community's warnings and instead pushed the narrative that Russia was seeking to manipulate the election.

That document was referred to the Department of Justice on Monday as a criminal complaint. Some of the top Democratic officials named in the declassification included former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice.