Graham seeks particular counsel to research Obama’s Russia probe position

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NBC "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker requested Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., if he was making an attempt to "distract from the Epstein matter" throughout a heated change on Sunday over Trump administration allegations that former President Obama might have directed the U.S. intelligence businesses to implicate Trump within the Russiagate scandal.

"You’re making an attempt to brush these things below the rug, and that’s not proper!" Graham mentioned.

The argument erupted over the latest allegations lodged by Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard claimed that declassified intelligence paperwork and a declassified 2020 Home Intelligence Committee report revealed that within the waning days of the Obama administration, the then-president ordered U.S. intel businesses to change their evaluation of Russia’s makes an attempt to intervene within the election particularly to assist elect Donald Trump.

The DNI director mentioned that the intelligence businesses had initially concluded that Russia was not making an attempt to assist Trump get elected. Gabbard alleged that the businesses actually had proof that Putin anticipated Hillary Clinton to win the presidency. Gabbard alleged that this was tantamount to a "treasonous conspiracy."

DNI GABBARD CLAIMS ‘DEEP STATE ACTORS’ DIDN’T WANT TRUMP-RUSSIA INFORMATION TO 'SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY'

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., clashed with NBC Anchor Kristen Welker over Tulsi Gabbard's Russia-Gate claims. ((Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc through Getty Photographs)

"The treasonous conspiracy that we now have now launched to the American folks — the complicity, the deflection, and the silence of politicians, of the mainstream media, and of these immediately implicated into this speaks volumes," Gabbard advised Fox & Associates.

President Trump known as for Obama and others to face "very extreme penalties" for making an attempt to "rig the election." Obama issued a uncommon official response to Trump, blasting the claims as "weird" and a "weak try at distraction."

"The weird allegations are ridiculous and a weak try at distraction. Nothing within the doc issued final week undercuts the extensively accepted conclusion that Russia labored to affect the 2016 presidential election however didn't efficiently manipulate any votes," he mentioned. "These findings had been affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio," a spokesperson for Obama mentioned.

Welker claimed that she had spoken to Republican former CIA officer Susan Miller, who categorically denied Gabbard’s claims. The NBC anchor additionally pointed to a Trump-appointed particular counsel, John H. Durham, who she claimed concluded in 2023 that there was no political interference within the Russiagate probe. She additionally performed a clip of Graham himself saying in 2017 that the Russians interfered within the election to embarrass Hillary Clinton.

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Welker requested Graham if he was making an attempt to distract the general public from the Epstein scandal. (NBC)

"There's just one individual in Washington that I do know of that has any doubt about what Russia did in our election and is President Trump," Graham mentioned on the time.

The South Carolina senator replied that Gabbard’s report contained info that hadn’t beforehand been disclosed, and that the allegations warranted a particular counsel investigation.

"Effectively, what I'm saying is that you simply left lots out right here… The Mueller investigation was crooked and rotten to the core. The Washington Put up and the New York Instances obtained a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Trump's marketing campaign's relationship with Russia. It was all B.S.," Graham mentioned.

Graham mentioned he isn’t calling for former President Obama to be prosecuted for treason, however mentioned {that a} particular counsel ought to look into whether or not the previous president ordered the intelligence report back to be modified as a result of he didn’t like the end result. He lamented that so many lives obtained turned the other way up by the Mueller investigation, and accused Welker of making an attempt to brush the administration’s findings "below the rug."

"For years and months and days and weeks, folks had their lives turned the other way up, chasing the Mueller narrative that Trump was in mattress with the Russians, that the Trump marketing campaign was colluding with the Russian… You’re making an attempt to brush these things below the rug and that’s not proper," he mentioned.