'It's obvious': Trump refuses to say what crime he is accusing Obama of

President’s actions at coronavirus briefing come as US passes 80,000 deaths

Donald Trump has refused to make clear what offence he believes Barack Obama has committed, a day after suggesting he was responsible for the “biggest political crime in American history, by far”.

Amid a series of claims that his predecessor’s administration acted improperly when it launched investigations into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election and into contacts between Russian officials and members of his campaign, including ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn, the president was asked what precise crime he was alleging.

“Mr President, in one of your Mother’s Day tweets you appear to accuse president Obama of the biggest political crime in American history by far. Those were your words. What crime exactly are you accusing president Obama of committing and do you believe the justice department should prosecute him,” he was asked by Philip Rucker of the Washington Post at a White House press conference.

“Obamagate,” the president said, using a word that his tweets set trending on social media. “It’s been going on for a long time. It’s been going on from before I even got elected, and it’s a disgrace that it happened.”

When he was again asked exactly he believed Mr Obama had done, Mr Trump told the reporter: “You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers – except yours.”

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Mr Trump’s outburst – on one day over the weekend he posted more than 100 tweets – came after his department of justice announced it was dropping the criminal case against Flynn, a former army general who joined Mr Trump’s campaign in 2015, and served briefly as his top national security adviser.

He was obliged to resign after it emerged he had lied to vice president Mike Pence about his conversations with Russia’s then top diplomat in the US.

Mr Flynn cooperated with the nearly two-year investigation overseen by Robert Mueller, and pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. He later sought to retract his confession.

Mr Trump and his supporters have long considered the case against Flynn as “outrageous”. The president has claimed the investigation into the 61-year-old former solider, which was launched before he took office, was part of a broader effort by Mr Obama to undermine him and to “spy” on him.

He has never provided any evidence to support such claims, and they have been dismissed by Mr Obama. Indeed, an inquiry carried out last year by DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz found sufficient cause for the FBI’s actions.

While he said agents had made errors in the way they sought Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to monitor one member of Mr Trump campaign team, Carter Page, Mr Horowitz said he “did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced” the decision to open the FBI investigation.

Last week, after the DOJ announced the decision to drop the case against Flynn, House speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “Attorney General Barr’s politicisation of justice knows no bounds.”

In one of his weekend tweets, made as the number of coronavirus tweets in the US approached 80,000, Mr Trump simply wrote: “Obamagate.”