Former US president Barak Obama has issued a rare response after his successor, Donald Trump, accused him of treason and shared a deep-fake video of his apparent arrest.

The twin baseless slaps at Obama came as Trump was asked about the Jeffrey Epstein case in the Oval Office on Tuesday (local time).

“The witch hunt that you should be talking about is they caught President Obama absolutely cold,” he said, before accusing Obama of treason, while offering no evidence.

“It’s time to go after people.”

It followed a July 21 post on Trump’s Truth Social platform where he accused Obama of manufacturing the “Russia HOAX”.

Trump’s comments follow claims from his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that she has evidence of a “treasonous conspiracy” related to the intelligence about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Her report, released last Friday, downplayed the extent of Russian interference by highlighting Obama administration emails showing officials had concluded before and after the presidential race that Moscow did not hack state election systems to manipulate votes in Trump’s favour.

But Obama’s Democratic administration never suggested otherwise. It did expose other Russian interference in the election, including a massive hack-and-leak operation of Democratic emails by intelligence operatives working with WikiLeaks, as well as a covert influence campaign aimed at swaying public opinion and sowing discord through fake social media posts.

Later on Tuesday, Obama’s office issued a terse response.

“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said.

“But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”

Trump is using his baseless claims against Obama as a rallying cry as he tries to re-unite his political base amid division over the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Maxwell to be interviewed

In another development on Tuesday, the US Justice Department said it had sought to speak to Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche said he expected to meet Maxwell in coming days following Tuesday’s request.

The request came as US Attorney General Pam Bondi faced mounting pressure from Trump supporters to release additional materials related to Epstein, who died in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

“President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence,” Blanche said in a statement posted on X.

He said if Maxwell had “information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say”.

Blanche said he had been in touch with Maxwell’s lawyers to see if she was willing to speak with prosecutors.

Maxwell lawyer David Oscar Markus acknowledged the contact.

“I can confirm that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case. We have no other comment at this time,” Markus said.

In recent weeks, some of Trump’s staunchest supporters have called on Bondi to resign after she back-tracked on a promise from earlier this year that her department would release additional materials, including “a lot of names” and “a lot of flight logs” in connection with Epstein’s clients.

After releasing only a select number of records, the department and the FBI released a joint memo earlier this month that poured cold water on long-running conspiracy theories about Epstein by saying there was “no incriminating client list” or any evidence of blackmail.

Since then, at Trump’s direction, Bondi and Blanche have asked a federal court for permission to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases of both Epstein and Maxwell. She was convicted in 2021 of five federal charges related to her role in Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse of underage girls, and sentenced to 20 years in jail.

However, legal experts including one of Epstein’s former lawyers, Alan Dershowitz, have said that those transcripts are unlikely to contain the types of materials being sought by Trump’s supporters.

A judge could also deny the request.

In an interview on Fox News on Sunday, Dershowitz called on the Justice Department to release other materials such as FBI reports of interviews with Epstein’s victims.

He also urged the government to grant Maxwell immunity so that she could potentially testify before Congress about Epstein’s crimes.

In other developments, the US House of Representatives will rise on Wednesday for a month-long summer break, a day earlier than planned.

That means it will not be able to consider any Epstein motions until September 2.

-with AAP