Weekend Update: Trump thinks Obama did what?
In a series of Tweets posted on Saturday morning, President Donald Trump claimed that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 Presidential Election.
Trump published the tweets without offering any evidence to prove the explosive allegations. According to The “Failing” New York Times, Trump’s aides did not clarify “on Saturday whether the president’s allegations were based on briefings from intelligence or law enforcement officials.”
The Times speculated that Trump could’ve obtained the information from a news report, referring to Trump’s repeated use of broadcast news stories as sources for multiple claims, including his allegation of a terrorism attack in Sweden that never took place. Trump later tweeted that his “statement as to what’s happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.”
Trump also compared the alleged wiretapping incident to the Watergate scandal, effectively likening Obama to Nixon:
The President also alluded to possibly bringing legal charges against Obama in this tweet:
FBI Director James Comey asked the Justice Department to deny Trump’s wiretapping assertions, according to senior officials as reported in a Times article:
Mr. Comey, who made the request on Saturday after Mr. Trump leveled his allegation on Twitter, has been working to get the Justice Department to knock down the claim because it falsely insinuates that the F.B.I. broke the law, the officials said.
Trump did not stay silent in the face of Comey’s actions, instead demanding on Sunday a congressional inquiry into whether Obama abused his position as President by directing federal law enforcement to violate Trump’s privacy via wiretap in the lead-up to Nov. 8. The demands were made in a statement released by Press Secretary Sean Spicer as a four-part tweet.
Neither Trump nor Spicer offered evidence as to the truth of the wiretapping claims on Sunday.
This is a developing story. This post will be updated with any developments that take place on Sunday, March 5th.
