White House press secretary Sean Spicer called Sunday for Congress to investigate President Donald Trump’s claims that President Barack Obama’s administration “abused” its executive power before the 2016 election.
“President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016,” Spicer said in a statement released Sunday.
(1/4) Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling.
— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) March 5, 2017
(2/4) President Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees
— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) March 5, 2017
(3/4) exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.
— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) March 5, 2017
(4/4) Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted.
— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) March 5, 2017
He said Trump’s allegations of “potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election” are “very troubling.”
“Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted,” Spicer said.
He then promptly commented further by way of a Twitter post citing former Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
On @ThisWeekABC Fmr Atty General Mukasey:I think @POTUS is right in that there was surveillance at the behest of Obama Dept of Justice
— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) March 5, 2017
On Saturday, Trump claimed that President Barack Obama was “wire tapping” his phones at Trump Tower ahead of the 2016 election. He offered no evidence to support those allegations.
A spokesperson for Obama rejected that claim later the same day.
“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.”
