Critics have accused Tulsi Gabbard of trying to shield Donald Trump’s administration from scrutiny through her recent claims that top Obama administration officials should be prosecuted for leading a “coup” against the president in 2016 by investigating Russian efforts to help his campaign.

A decision by the White House to trot out Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard in the middle of a press conference on Wednesday earned the Donald Trump administration a thrashing on MSNBC on Thursday morning.

NBC “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker asked Sen. Lindsey Graham if he was trying to “distract from the Epstein matter” during a heated exchange on Sunday.

Director of National Intelligence has referred former president and his intelligence officials to Attorney General over Russian election hacking allegations

In the government’s latest bid to distract from Donald Trump’s emerging ties to alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard unveiled supposedly “new evidence” Wednesday that members of the Obama administration had pushed the “lie” that Russian President Vladimir Putin preferred Trump over Hillary Clinton.

After Epstein, this will be the second time that Trump administration officials allege a massive conspiracy but aren’t able to produce evidence to support their claims.

Gabbard has called for the investigation and prosecution of Obama administration officials, accusing them of a “years-long coup” against President Donald Trump.

And there's probably — I would say there's no question that Tulsi Gabbard has brought on this Obama scandal to appease the Trump base and hope that they stop paying attention to Epstein, which is not gonna work. But still, that's probably why they did it. But that doesn't mean it's not true.