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

Office of ex-US president breaks precedent and warns that allegations of attempted coup' are attempt at distraction'

Barack Obama has broken his silence on calls from Donald Trump 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.

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 Hillary Clinton in the campaign.