Obama denies Trump claim he wiretapped him during campaign

[rooster59]

Obama denies Trump claim he wiretapped him during campaign

By David Shepardson

 

U.S. President Donald Trump visits a classroom at Saint Andrew Catholic School in Orlando, Florida, U.S., March 3, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A spokesman for Barack Obama on Saturday rejected claims from U.S. President Donald Trump that the former president had wiretapped him in October during the late stages of the presidential election campaign.

"Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false," Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said in a statement.

Trump had suggested Obama had improperly tapped his phones, without citing evidence, in a series of tweets on Saturday morning.

"How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!," Trump said in a series of tweets on his Twitter account early on Saturday. "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!"

Lewis also said that "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."

The statement raised the possibility that a wiretap of the Trump campaign could have been ordered by Justice Department officials.

The White House did not respond to a request to elaborate on Trump's accusations.

A Trump spokeswoman said the Republican president is "having meetings, making phone calls and hitting balls" at his golf course in West Palm Beach.

Earlier, former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes strongly denied Trump's allegations.

"No president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you," Rhodes wrote on Twitter.

In one of the Tweets, Trump said the alleged wiretapping took place in his Trump Tower office and apartment building in New York, but there was "nothing found."

Trump's administration has come under pressure from Federal Bureau of Investigation and congressional investigations into contacts between some members of his campaign team and Russian officials during his campaign.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he had no knowledge about any wiretapping but is "very worried that our president is suggesting that the former president has done something illegally. I would (also) be very worried if in fact the Obama administration was able to obtain a warrant lawfully about Trump campaign activity."

Graham said it was his job "to get to the bottom of this. I promise I will."

Several other Republicans again urged an investigation into a series of intelligence-related leaks.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi ridiculed Trump's assertions. "The Deflector-in-Chief is at it again. An investigation by an independent commission is the only answer," she wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

Obama imposed sanctions on Russia and ordered Russian diplomats to leave the United States in December over the country's involvement in hacking political parties in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

On Saturday, Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News that Trump "is not credible when it comes to talking about Russia."

Swalwell downplayed Trump's allegation. "I think this is just the president up early doing his routine tweeting, he said. "Presidents don't wiretap anyone. These are pursued by the Department of Justice in accordance with the FBI and signed off by a judge."

Under U.S. law, a federal court would have to have found probable cause that the target of the surveillance is an "agent of a foreign power" in order to approve a warrant authorizing electronic surveillance of Trump Tower.

Several conservative news outlets and commentators have made similar allegations about Trump being wiretapped during the campaign in recent days, without offering any evidence.

Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned in February after revelations that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office.

Flynn had promised Vice President Mike Pence he had not discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russians, but transcripts of intercepted communications, described by U.S. officials, showed that the subject had come up in conversations between him and the Russian ambassador.

Trump has often used his Twitter account to attack rivals and for years led a campaign alleging that Obama was not born in the United States. He later retracted the allegation.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-03-05

[Berkshire]

As usual, Trump makes allegations with zero evidence.

[stevenl]

Is it possible a conversation from Trump with a Russian official was recorded because NSA/CIA were listening in to the Russian's conversations?

sent using Tapatalk

[Neurath]

Oh my, just what has Trump let of out of the bag:

 

"It would have meant that the Justice Department had gathered sufficient evidence to persuade a federal judge that there was probable cause to believe he had committed a serious crime or was an agent of a foreign power, depending on whether it was a criminal investigation or a foreign intelligence one."

 

Seems like the dog has bitten it's own tail.

[craigt3365]

2 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Is it possible a conversation from Trump with a Russian official was recorded because NSA/CIA were listening in to the Russian's conversations?

sent using Tapatalk
 

Guaranteed.  That's already been proven.  Flynn resigned.  CNN is going into this in detail now.  Basically saying how hard it would be to get a wire tap like this.  Extremely difficult.  Unless, as they point out, they were going after Paul Manafort.  Who has very close ties to people in Russia and Ukraine.  Thus, he left the Trump campaign.

 

Absolutely crazy times.

[Briggsy]

Sounds like some kind of revelation is coming and Trump is trying to get ahead of it and change the narrative to an attack on Obama.

[Neurath]

1 minute ago, Briggsy said:

Sounds like some kind of revelation is coming and Trump is trying to get ahead of it and change the narrative to an attack on Obama.

That's what his hysteria would indicate.

 

"It would have meant that the Justice Department had gathered sufficient evidence to persuade a federal judge that there was probable cause to believe he had committed a serious crime or was an agent of a foreign power, depending on whether it was a criminal investigation or a foreign intelligence one."

 

The curve he's trying to get ahead of might just well be a tsunami wave.

 

[ezzra]

1 hour ago, Berkshire said:

As usual, Trump makes allegations with zero evidence.

 

It's called politics, and in politics, say what you want and do something

else altogether, something that Obama was know to do....

[craigt3365]

Trump has lost it.  No proof, just a blurb from a talk show radio host, which was picked up by fake news website Breitbart.  The radio host, Levin, is a nut...and Trump listens to him?  Unreal.

 

The thinking is it's Trump's attempt to deflect from the Russian crisis in his administration.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/04/politics/trump-obama-wiretap-tweet/index.html

Quote

"We are in the midst of a civilization-warping crisis of public trust, and the President's allegations today demand the thorough and dispassionate attention of serious patriots," Sasse said. "A quest for the full truth, rather than knee-jerk partisanship, must be our guide if we are going to rebuild civic trust and health."

 

Sad chapter in American history.

[boomerangutang]

               First off, if there were wiretaps, it was most likely NSA- CIA- or FBI-instigated.  I don't think the former president of the US needed to personally sign-off on such things.  He already had lots do.

 

             More importantly, there have been indications for many moons that Trump was likely involved with nefarious communications with top Russian officials.  There was a story (September?) which indicated there was a dedicated internet connection between a computer in Trump tower and a computer in a Moscow bank owned by a bosom buddy of Putin's.  Encrypted emails could only be sent between those two computers.   

[edwinchester]

Can't wait for this nutter to get impeached.

[iReason]

Lovin' it!

 

Was hoping for the Huckster to be impeached but, even better, the crass, boorish cretin is self destructing in front of the whole world. 

 

Still waiting for those leaked photos of this incompetent (furious) fool shuffling around the White House

in the middle of the night before he got a chance to work on his hair-do with his hair spray. 

[IMA_FARANG]

In spite of what many people think Donald Trump is a very insecure person emotionally .

He shows the classic symptom of the fat rich boy in school with no friends who  imagines any opposition to him s conspirouscy  against him personally.

Unable to deal with rejection, he thinks everybody is out to get him, never considering  the  possibility that he may be at fault,

 

 

[lannarebirth]

1 minute ago, IMA_FARANG said:

In spite of what many people think Donald Trump is a very insecure person emotionally .

He shows the classic symptom of the fat rich boy in school with no friends who  imagines any opposition to him s conspirouscy  against him personally.

Unable to deal with rejection, he thinks everybody is out to get him, never considering  the  possibility that he may be at fault,

 

 

 

I think everybody thinks that.

[craigt3365]

3 minutes ago, IMA_FARANG said:

In spite of what many people think Donald Trump is a very insecure person emotionally .

He shows the classic symptom of the fat rich boy in school with no friends who  imagines any opposition to him s conspirouscy  against him personally.

Unable to deal with rejection, he thinks everybody is out to get him, never considering  the  possibility that he may be at fault,

 

 

Exactly the reason he didn't attend the WH correspondents dinner.  He can't take the heat.

[darksidedog]

Oh Dear! Another idiot rant from Donald. Good job CNN didn't report it.

I find it hard to understand how anyone can believe a word this buffoon comes out with.

[Becker]

Well, the "creds" he gained with the speech to Congress sure didn't last long. Must be the most frustrating job in the world to be the man-child's handlers. Not that I feel sorry for them.

[mtls2005]

U.S.C. Title 50 might be able to be used to authorize intercepts, subject to judicial review.

 

The FISA court does authorize ~ 99.9% of requests.

 

Communications typically involve more than one person; hence a secondary party could be under surveillance (legally) who then might communicate with Trump/associate. Surveillance might allow for 'two-hop' rules.

 

Foreign intelligence services are probably surveilling U.S. citizens, including Trump, and foreigners, including Russians.

 

Was communications to/from Trump intercepted? Probably? Was it "legal" (assuming done by U.S.)? Hopefully? Did Obama authorize it? Probably not. Was it leaked? More than probable.

 

An independent investigation into any/all aspects of the Trump/Obama/Russians is now mandatory. Trump really should just release his tax returns as this would clear up any potential issues re: his financial dealings with Russia.

 

I, for one, would really like to understand the details of the Palm Beach property Donald Trump purchased for $ 40 million, and then flipped to Dmitry Rybolovlev for $ 100 million. And maybe some clarity on Wilbur Ross's (new U.S. Commerce Secretary) Bank of Cyprus, the Russians and Trump. 

 

 

This seems like a crazy person tweeting without parental oversight, but it also could end up being a brilliant pivot? 

 

 

 

 

[Prbkk]

I'm no fan of conspiracy theories but am starting to lean to the view that Trump was placed on Earth by hostile aliens.

[DM07]

Ooooooh, he is soooooo presidential!


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Bluespunk]

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Earlier, former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes strongly denied Trump's allegations.

"No president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you," Rhodes wrote on Twitter.

Shh, don't you know, the truth and reality are not allowed in trumptopia.

[Roadman]

35 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

Can't wait for this nutter to get impeached.

No us non Muricanos' dont want that. This is the best entertainment show of the modern era. It also gives the rest of us comfort that no matter how bad we think our leaders might be we only have to look at the US and know that some have if even worse. 

[Bluespunk]

17 minutes ago, Prbkk said:

I'm no fan of conspiracy theories but am starting to lean to the view that Trump was placed on Earth by hostile aliens.

Or at least ones with a very strange sense of humour.

[WaywardWind]

17 minutes ago, Prbkk said:

I'm no fan of conspiracy theories but am starting to lean to the view that Trump was placed on Earth by hostile aliens.

If he was placed on Earth by aliens, it is more likely that they were just plain sick of him, and not because they were hostile to us....heh..

[rijb]

33 minutes ago, IMA_FARANG said:

In spite of what many people think Donald Trump is a very insecure person emotionally .

He shows the classic symptom of the fat rich boy in school with no friends who  imagines any opposition to him s conspirouscy  against him personally.

Unable to deal with rejection, he thinks everybody is out to get him, never considering  the  possibility that he may be at fault,

 

 

I don't believe most 'fat rich school boys' would have all those symptoms.  However, his rantings might become a self fulfilling prophecy.

[rijb]

18 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

New tweets by The Divider, this morning.  The dufus has just put himself beneath the tailgate of a giant dump truck full of shit, and ordered the operator to dump it on him.  

No need for all those metaphors.  The facts are disheartening enough.

[binjalin]

48 minutes ago, Scott said:

I am not going to get into a weeing contest over the issue.   California only automatically registers people to vote who are US citizens and eligible to vote.  

 

So my request remains.   I think there has been enough inflammatory and inaccurate information posted to last a lifetime.  

 

Oh, and by the way, I went through this with both myself and a Thai person, who was NOT given any option to register to vote because he is NOT a US citizen.   

I hope no one is letting their politics get in the way

[Scott]

Just now, binjalin said:

I hope no one is letting their politics get in the way

It's not about politics.  It is about provide false information.   That is against the forum rules.   Opinions are one thing, but they are not necessarily facts.  

 

Please stay on topic.  

[binjalin]

It's bizarre the latest Trump claim and he'd better have evidence to back it up or he'll look a fool 

[Scott]

An inflammatory post has been reported and removed.   Please use civil language in your posts.