President Donald Trump claimed that Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower in New York City prior to the presidential election.
In a trademark early-morning series of tweets on Saturday, Trump said: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
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
The president then alleged that Obama bypassed a court rejection in order to carry out the wiretapping, before suggesting that 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!”
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
None of the president’s tweets included any evidence or links to back up his claims.
Trump concluded his assertion by comparing Obama’s “wiretapping” to Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal that resulted in the then-president’s resignation from office in 1974 after he ordered a break-in of the Democrats’ headquarters.
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
Obama responded Saturday afternoon with a statement from his spokesperson, Kevin Lewis:
“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. As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. Citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
