A spokesperson for former President Barack Obama on Saturday flatly rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that the Obama administration illegally wire tapped his campaign headquarters during the 2016 race.
Trump’s allegation, made in a string of tweets that offered no evidence of the information’s source, was “simply false,” Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said in a statement.
“Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen,” Lewis said.
Neither @barackobama nor any WH official under Obama has ever ordered surveillance on any US Citizen. Any suggestion is unequivocally false pic.twitter.com/qF04X3NUvq
— Kevin Lewis (@KLewis44) March 4, 2017
Trump charged that Obama had his “wires tapped” in Trump Tower a month ahead of the election, comparing the alleged surveillance to “McCarthyism” and the Watergate scandal.
The President did not mention where he learned this information, which he said he “just found out.” Breitbart News this week published a piece based on claims made by conservative radio host Mark Levin alleging that Obama carried out a “silent coup” against the Trump campaign using “police state” tactics.
The Guardian and Heat Street have reported that the FBI applied for a foreign intelligence surveillance court (FISA) warrant over the summer to monitor four Trump staffers suspected of having improper ties to Russian officials. The initial request was turned down for being overly broad, but according to Heat Street, the FBI eventually received a warrant in October after the discovery of a server in Trump Tower connected to a Russian bank.
If only we had tape of WH staff seeing those tweets this morning.
If only we had tape of Barack and Michelle seeing those tweets…
The rabid right narrative has been pointing this way for a while. They want this to be a “deep state” coup orchestrated by Obama, who if you recall was never legitimate to start with because he was born in Kenya, which brings the entire craziness full circle.
Somehow I think the Russia stuff is way too real and way too big for that to work. Plus the fact that the “deep state” isn’t really a deep state and wouldn’t answer to Obana if it was. But that’s where we are headed. It’s all they have left.
Now that glops of shit are starting to be flung from the fan, I’d really like to see Hillary take Trump, Pence and the GOP (and, by extension, Russia) to court for interfering in the election. Their efforts and actions harmed her and us, America. She (we) has standing. It’s unprecedented, but this whole situation–a presidential candidate, his team and party higher-ups collaborating with a hostile foreign entity to interfere in our electoral process–is unprecedented. Either Hillary officially wins or we hold a new election later this spring.
My right wing buddy in Portland thinks that at any moment, evidence will come out showing that Trump is right. Obama did order an illegal wiretap. He said he heard it on Fox News this morning and told me to get ready for the big bombshell that will expose the utter corruption of the Obama administration. I told him that for once we can agree on something. There is going to be a bombshell…Bigly