President Trump said his predecessor Barack Obama had to “know about” efforts to ensure he wouldn’t win the presidency.

“There was no crime. There was no collusion. The big thing’s collusion. Now, there’s no collusion,” Trump told ABC News’ “This Week” in an interview that aired Sunday. “That means they set – it was a setup – in my opinion, and I think it’s gonna come out.”

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked if he believed Obama was behind the setup.

“I would say that he certainly must have known about it because it went very high up in the chain. But you’re gonna find that out. I’m not gonna make that statement quite yet. But I would say that President Obama had to know about it,” Trump said.

Trump has directed Attorney General William Barr to launch an investigation into the beginnings of the FBI’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

In the ABC interview, he brought up the text messages shared between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page about having an “insurance policy” if Trump won.

At the time, Strzok was part of the counterintelligence operation into Trump.