Obama breaks silence on Trump’s ‘outrageous’ call to prosecute him

<p>Office of ex-US president breaks precedent and warns that allegations of attempted ‘coup’ are ‘attempt at distraction’</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/jul/22/trump-epstein-mike-johnson-congress-vote-politics-latest-updates">US politics – follow live</a></p></li></ul><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/barack-obama">Barack Obama</a> has broken his silence on calls from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump">Donald Trump</a> for him to be prosecuted by unequivocally rejecting his successor’s accusations that he tried to engineer a “coup” following Trump’s 2016 election victory by “manufacturing” evidence of Russian interference.</p><p>Obama’s office took the unusual step of issuing an emphatic refutation after Trump told reporters that his predecessor had “[tried] to lead a coup” against him and was guilty of “treason” over intelligence assessments suggesting that Russia had intervened to help Trump defeat <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/hillary-clinton">Hillary Clinton</a> in the campaign.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/22/obama-breaks-silence-trump">Continue reading...</a>