Trump claims Obama wiretapped him

President Donald Trump is accusing former President Barack Obama of having Trump's telephones ``wire tapped’’ during last year's election, but Trump isn’t offering any evidence or saying what prompted the allegation. Picture: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

President Donald Trump is accusing former President Barack Obama of having Trump's telephones ``wire tapped’’ during last year's election, but Trump isn’t offering any evidence or saying what prompted the allegation. Picture: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Published Mar 5, 2017

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Washington - US President Donald Trump

accused predecessor Barack Obama on Saturday of wiretapping him

during the late stages of the 2016 election campaign, but

offered no evidence for an allegation which an Obama spokesman

said was "simply false".

Trump made the accusation in a series of early morning

tweets just weeks into his administration and amid rising

scrutiny of his campaign's ties to Russia.

"How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during

the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad

(or sick) guy!," Trump wrote in one tweet. "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!"

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

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

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

The remarkable tussle between the current and former

presidents just 45 days since the handover of power is the

latest twist in a controversy over ties between Trump associates

and Russia that has dogged the early days of his presidency.

US intelligence agencies concluded last year that Russia

hacked and leaked Democratic emails during the election campaign

as part of an effort to tilt the vote in Trump's favor. The

Kremlin has denied the allegations.

Trump has accused officials in Obama's administration of

trying to discredit him with questions about Russia contacts.

Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said it had been a "cardinal

rule" of the Obama administration that no White House official

ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the

Department of Justice.

"Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever

ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion

otherwise is simply false," Lewis said in a statement.

The statement did not address the possibility that a wiretap

of the Trump campaign could have been ordered by Justice

Department officials.

Trump said the alleged wiretapping took place in his Trump

Tower office and apartment building in New York, but there was

"nothing found." The White House did not respond to a request to

elaborate on Trump's accusations.

Trump was spending the weekend at his Florida seaside

resort, Mar-a-Lago. He was scheduled to meet with Attorney

General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly

before a dinner with officials also including adviser Steve

Bannon and White House Counsel Don McGahn, the White House said.

Amid a political storm, Sessions on Thursday announced he

would stay out of any probe into alleged Russian meddling in the

2016 presidential election after it emerged he met last year

with Russia's ambassador, although he maintained he did nothing

wrong by failing to disclose the meeting.

A Trump spokeswoman said the president spent part of

Saturday "having meetings, making phone calls and hitting balls"

at his golf course in West Palm Beach.

His supporters, meanwhile, staged small rallies in at least

28 of the country's 50 states, most of which passed off

peacefully. But there were clashes in the famously left-leaning

city of Berkeley, California, where protesters from both sides

hit each other over the head with wooden sticks.

Trump's tweets caught his aides by surprise, with one saying

it was unclear what the president was referring to.

Members of Congress said Trump's accusations require

investigation or explanation.

Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican, described the allegations

as serious and said the public deserved more information. He

said in a statement it was possible that Trump had been

illegally tapped, but, if so, the president should explain what

sort of tap it was and how he knew about it.

U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the

House Intelligence Committee, called Trump's assertion a

"spectacularly reckless allegation".

"If there is something bad or sick going on, it is the

willingness of the nation's chief executive to make the most

outlandish and destructive claims without providing a scintilla

of evidence to support them," Schiff said in a statement.

Former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes strongly denied Trump's

allegations: "No president can order a wiretap. Those

restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people

like you," Rhodes wrote on Twitter.

Trump's administration has come under pressure from Federal

Bureau of Investigation and congressional investigations into

contacts between some members of his campaign team and Russian

officials during his campaign.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he had no knowledge

of any wiretapping but was "very worried" about the suggestion

Obama had acted illegally and would also be concerned "if in

fact the Obama administration was able to obtain a warrant

lawfully about Trump campaign activity."

Several other Republicans again urged an investigation into

a series of intelligence-related leaks.

Obama imposed sanctions on Russia and ordered Russian

diplomats to leave the United States in December over the

country's involvement in hacking political parties in the November 8

US presidential election.

Under US law, a federal court would have to have found

probable cause that the target of the surveillance is an "agent

of a foreign power" in order to approve a warrant authorizing

electronic surveillance of Trump Tower.

Several conservative news outlets and commentators have made

allegations in recent days about Trump being wiretapped during

the campaign, without offering any evidence.

Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn,

resigned in February after revelations that he had discussed

U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the

United States before Trump took office.

Flynn had promised Vice President Mike Pence he had not

discussed US sanctions with the Russians, but transcripts of

intercepted communications, described by US officials, showed

that the subject had come up in conversations between him and

the Russian ambassador.

Reuters

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