Early on a Saturday morning in March 2017, President Donald Trump alleged with no evidence that President Barack Obama had Trump Tower’s “wires tapped” during the 2016 presidential campaign.
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
Trump followed that tweet with some legal analysis before calling Obama a “bad (or sick) guy!”
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
On Friday, Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) admitted there was no basis for the president of the United States’ claims about his predecessor.
Law & Order’s Colin Kalmbacher reports the DOJ’s “Friday’s court filing notes two separate instances in which the Trump administration has rubbished the claims made by its own executive.”
First, the Department of Justice acknowledged, based upon the Congressional testimony of then-FBI Director James B. Comey, that it has no records of alleged wiretapping of then-candidate Trump in Trump Tower by the Obama administration prior to the 2016 presidential election, as referenced in President Trump’s Twitter post on March 4, 2017.
Trump’s DOJ also admitted it has “no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets” in a September 2017 court filing.
Following Trump’s tweets, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer suggested British intelligence could have wiretapped Trump Tower at Obama’s request. Spicer’s remarks were based on commentary by Fox News’ Andrew Napolitano. Shortly after Trump praised Napolitano as a “very talented legal mind” during a news conference, Fox News’ Shepard Smith said the network “knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-President of the United States was surveilled at any time in any way, full stop.”
The House and Senate Intelligence Committees, which are controlled by Republicans, have said there is no evidence that Trump Tower was wiretapped.