Trump DOJ sets up 'strike force' to probe unfounded Obama '16 vote claims

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Jul 24, 2025

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President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has set up a “strike force” to probe unfounded claims that former President Barack Obama illegally pushed allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to boost Trump.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said she’s eager to “investigate potential next legal steps” following the release of a report on the issue from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that accused Obama of hatching a “treasonous conspiracy.”

“We will investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice,” Bondi said in a statement.

Impartial analysts say there is nothing new in Gabbard’s dossier and no evidence of wrongdoing by Obama. It doesn’t refute the widely accepted fact that Russia sought to influence the 2016 campaign on Trump’s behalf and against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Critics say administration officials are seeking to gin up new controversies to distract attention from the politically damaging calls for Trump to release more information on the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case.

Trump has no secret of his intent to use federal law enforcement to suit his own personal and political interests, effectively rejecting decades of independence for the Department of Justice.

Gabbard has claimed that newly declassified files prove a “treasonous conspiracy” by the Obama administration in 2016 to politicize U.S. intelligence in service of casting doubt on the legitimacy of Trump’s White House win.

The intelligence chief cited emails from Obama officials and a 5-year-old classified House report in hopes of undermining the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to boost Trump and denigrate Clinton.

Russia’s activities during the 2016 election remain some of the most examined events in recent history.

Multiple bipartisan investigations, including one led by now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio, found that Russia sought to interfere in the election through the use of social media and hacked material.

The evidence doesn’t back the notion that Russia successfully hacked voting machines or rigged voting totals to help Trump and hurt Clinton. But Obama never claimed that it did, and publicly said there was no evidence of vote tampering in December 2020 as Trump prepared to take office for his first term.

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