'Obamagate' canard is Trump's latest attempt at a show about nothing
Former President Barack Obama in April. Credit: Twitter via Getty Images
There really is no such thing as "Obamagate." Even President Donald Trump couldn't define the term after tossing it around on Twitter and television.
On Mother's Day, Trump accused predecessor Barack Obama of "the biggest crime in American history." Later last week, he was asked at a news conference what this crime is supposed to have been. “Uh, Obamagate. It’s been going on for a long time," he said. “It’s been going on from before I even got elected, and it’s a disgrace that it happened, and if you look at what’s gone on, and if you look at now, all this information that’s being released — and from what I understand, that’s only the beginning — some terrible things happened, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again.”
Clearly, Trump lacked convincing backup for the smear. But he did try to call attention to efforts by Attorney General William Barr's Justice Department to deny or deodorize Trump's still-pungent Russia scandal. On Friday, the president tweeted: "Where is the 302? It is missing Was it stolen or destroyed? General Flynn is being persecuted! #OBAMAGATE."
A "302" is FBI talk for an interview memo. "Asking" whether something was "stolen or destroyed" is a familiar Trump conspiracy trope, the indefinite search for buried treasure. Past episodes involved a nonexistent computer "server" in Ukraine, nonexistent "tapes" of his conversation with FBI Director James Comey and Hillary Clinton's supposedly incriminating "missing" emails. Team Trump never hits pay dirt but always shouts "Eureka!"
The motive here is less than subtle. Obama recently pointed out in private that the current administration's pandemic response has been an “absolute chaotic disaster.” Moreover, Trump is likely to run for reelection against Joe Biden, who was Obama's vice president.
Barr for some time has been trying backfill details that could support an "Obamagate." Success has been elusive. His memo distorted the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, which never exonerated Trump on obstruction of justice. Barr's internal watchdog failed to find the Russia probe as based on political bias — but the attorney general still insisted Obama's White House "spied" on Trump. Barr appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham in Connecticut to dig up something useful, with no clear result so far.
Now Barr is moving in court to retroactively fix the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about Russia contacts. Barr also sought earlier to intervene in the sentencing of convicted Trump adviser Roger Stone, who got a 3-year term but won a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic. Taken together, these recent events could plausibly earn the name "Trumpgate."
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
