US President Donald Trump dropped a series of controversial tweets on Saturday morning claiming that former US President Barack Obama ‘wiretapped’ his phones in the Trump Tower during the 2016 elections.
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Showing no proof, Obama’s spokesperson, Kevin Lewis, called “any suggestion” that Obama or any White House official ordered surveillance against Trump “simply false.”
“A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” Lewis said in a statement early Saturday afternoon. “As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
Two former senior US officials also quickly dismissed Trump’s accusations, with one saying his claims were “just nonsense,” and the other former senior US official with direct knowledge of investigations by the Justice Department under the Obama administration said Trump’s phones were never tapped.
On the other hand, former Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes posted a response to Trump on Saturday morning. “No President can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you,” he tweeted.
However, critics have speculated this outburst as an attempt to divert attention from investigations of Trump’s ties to Russia.
