Late on the night of April 24, 2026, Donald Trump used Truth Social to call for the arrest of his predecessor Barack Obama, accusing him of 'treason' over the 2016 Russia investigation. Trump amplified a Newsmax segment featuring commentator Jason Meister that called Obama 'the spearhead of a seditious conspiracy.' He shared a Fox News segment about declassified notes from former CIA Director John Brennan. He shared another post that read: 'Hillary Clinton funded … Barack Obama called the shots … The evidence is clear, TREASON was committed.'
Treason is a federal capital offense. Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution defines it narrowly: 'Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.' No bipartisan or special-counsel investigation, including the Mueller probe and the Senate Intelligence Committee's bipartisan five-volume report, has identified conduct by Obama that meets that definition or any lesser standard of criminal conduct. Brennan's notes do not contradict the established record that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump.
Former DOJ official Anthony Coley to theGrio: 'This isn't just false; it's reckless. Repeating debunked conspiracy theories doesn't make them true, and it drags the country deeper into division.' Obama's office has previously called similar allegations 'ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.'
The call comes inside a broader and accelerating pattern. DNI Tulsi Gabbard sent the Justice Department criminal referrals targeting both the 2019 Ukraine whistleblower and former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson on April 15. The DOJ indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on April 21. Trump's first-term retaliatory indictments of James Comey, Letitia James, and John Bolton were dismissed in November 2025 after Judge Cameron McGowan Currie found U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan had been unlawfully appointed. The Obama call is the most explicit presidential demand for the prosecution of a predecessor in modern American history.