Trump Just Accused Obama Of Wiretapping Him. Obama’s Response Is Perfect
This morning, President Donald Trump lashed out in an impulsive tweetstorm accusing President Obama of ordering the wiretapping of Trump Tower in a pathetic attempt to deflect attention away from the investigation into suspected collusion between the Trump team and agents of the Russian Federation.
Instead, he ended up just throwing more fuel on the fire that threatens to engulf his entire administration.
Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis just responded with this statement that should put the matter to rest:
“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.”
As former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes reminded everyone today, there are rules preventing presidents from ordering wiretaps in place to prevent vengeful and petulant presidents like Trump from inventing some national security excuse to monitor his enemies – like Trump has done to justify his executive orders banning Muslims from entering the United States and to target illegal immigrants for deportation.
No President can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. https://t.co/lEVscjkzSw
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) March 4, 2017
So that means if there was a wiretap, as the President of the United States just told the world there was, that means that it was granted by a court order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This corroborates the suspected existence of a FISA warrant first reported by former British member of Parliament Louise Mensch via HeatStreet and later reported by the Guardian. The FBI’s first request, filed in July, was rejected, as Trump’s tweets correctly state – but a second one, filed in October, appears to have been granted – as Trump’s own tweets say it was.
The granting of a FISA warrant requires there to be probable cause that the targets are operating as agents of a foreign government, which the Trump team has been accused of doing for months on end.
Trump may have thought he was helping to shift the spotlight off of himself and onto President Obama by giving credence to a ridiculous Breitbart conspiracy that alleges a secret “Obama shadow government” is behind the information leaks and the protests across the country.
Instead, he just dug himself deeper into the hole. All of this just makes the need for a special prosecutor to lead the investigation into the Trump, his team and their alleged collusion with Russian agents all the more urgent.
Here are the relevant Trump tweets.
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
