In his latest round of early-morning tweets, President Donald Trump appeared to question the Democratic National Committee’s response to the hacking of its systems, as well as a comment President Barack Obama made to a Russian official in 2012.
“Is it true the DNC would not allow the FBI access to check server or other equipment after learning it was hacked?” Trump tweeted.
“Who was it that secretly said to Russian President, ‘Tell Vladimir that after the election I’ll have more flexibility?'” he also posted.
Is it true the DNC would not allow the FBI access to check server or other equipment after learning it was hacked? Can that be possible?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2017
Who was it that secretly said to Russian President, “Tell Vladimir that after the election I’ll have more flexibility?” @foxandfriends
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2017
On Saturday, Trump accused Obama of “wire tapping” his phones at Trump Tower, without offering any evidence to support his claims.
A spokesperson for Obama rejected that claim on Saturday.
“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,” Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said in a statement. “Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen.”
With regard to Trump’s claims on Sunday, CNN reported in January that DNC officials “rebuffed” FBI requests for direct access after it was hacked.
“The FBI repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the necessity of obtaining direct access to servers and data, only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated,” an unnamed senior law enforcement official told CNN.
A DNC spokesman told BuzzFeed in January that the FBI “never requested access to the DNC’s computer servers.”
“The DNC cooperated fully with the FBI and its investigation, providing access to all of the information uncovered by CrowdStrike — without any limits,” DNC deputy communications director Eric Walker told BuzzFeed. CrowdStrike is a third-party online security company.
As for the “secretly” conveyed quote Trump cited in his second tweet, the President was apparently referring to a comment Obama made to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in 2012, when Medvedev was the outgoing Russian president.
Obama told Medvedev that he would have “more flexibility” after the 2012 election to address issues such as missile defense.
Their efforts at deflection are increasingly weak and obvious.
NOOOO… we’ll never get to 2000 now!!
So this morning it’s the what aboutisms game. What a childish man.
Trump is Tea Party, personified. He takes 3 bits from the fever swamp, retweets them, and thinks he’s achieved a clever, logical checkmate.
Who was Sherlock Holmes smarter brother?
How could Einstein make such a colossal blunder with the cosmological constant?
Did Elizabeth Bennett really love arrogant Mr. Darcy, or was she just interested in him for his yuuuge house?
When will Jonathan Kellerman write a point-of-view Alex Delaware novel?