Sunday, June 21, 2026
ADVT 
International

Donald Trump's Wire-Tapping Claims Simply False: Obama Spokesman

The Canadian Press, 04 Mar, 2017 12:42 PM
    US President Donald Trump's accusation that his predecessor Barack Obama had his "wires tapped" in Trump Tower before Election Day is "simply false", Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said 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," Xinhua news agency quoted Lewis as saying in a statement.
     
    "As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false," said Lewis.
     
    Trump claimed in a tweet storm on Saturday morning that Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower before his election victory, but offered no evidence.
     
    Trump said: "Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!"
     
    He also called Obama a "bad, or sick, guy". 
     
    "Is it legal for a sitting President to be 'wiretapping' a race for President prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!" Trump added in subsequent tweets. 
     
    "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!"
     
    The President then compared the alleged surveillance of his communications to Watergate -- the scandal in the early 1970s that brought down Republican President Richard Nixon after he ordered a break-in of the Democrats' Washington headquarters.
     
    However, Trump did not immediately provide evidence that Obama was responsible for surveillance on his property, the Hill newspaper reported.
     
     
    Moments earlier, Trump had also linked Obama to Attorney General Jeff Sessions's meetings last year with Russia's ambassador to Washington.
     
    "The first meeting Jeff Sessions had with the Russian Amb was set up by the Obama Administration under education programme for 100 Ambs," he tweeted.
     
    Sessions on Thursday said he would recuse himself from any investigations into Russia's links to Trump's team, after massive outrage over the revelations that he met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice during the campaign, then denied doing so during his confirmation hearings.
     
    Trump also blasted Obama for meeting Kislyak 22 times and tweeted: "Just out: The same Russian Ambassador that met Jeff Sessions visited the Obama White House 22 times, and 4 times last year alone."
     
    Trump's team has sought to push back on accusations of ties with Russia by pointing out instances of Democrats meeting Kislyak, according to the report. 
     
    Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was ousted last month after revelations that he misled top White House officials about the nature of his conversations with Kislyak.

    MORE International ARTICLES

    UN Adopts Modi's Yoga Day Proposal, Backed By 175 Countries

    UN Adopts Modi's Yoga Day Proposal, Backed By 175 Countries
    In a huge global endorsement for yoga, 175 out of 193 members of the UN, countries as diverse as the US and Syria, Russia and Britain, and China and the Philippines, agreed by acclamation Wednesday to declare June 21 the International Yoga Day, recognizing the ancient Indian science's "holistic approach to health and well-being".

    UN Adopts Modi's Yoga Day Proposal, Backed By 175 Countries

    Five Al Qaeda India militants held in Pakistan

    Five Al Qaeda India militants held in Pakistan
    Pakistan police claimed to have arrested five militants belonging to the newly formed Al Qaeda India (AQI) group for their alleged involvement...

    Five Al Qaeda India militants held in Pakistan

    Two more MH17 crash victims identified

    Two more MH17 crash victims identified
    Two more victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine have been identified, raising total number of the identified victims to...

    Two more MH17 crash victims identified

    Imran Khan's party imposes shut-down in Karachi

    Imran Khan's party imposes shut-down in Karachi
    Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's party, protesting since August against the alleged rigging in the 2013 parliamentary elections...

    Imran Khan's party imposes shut-down in Karachi

    'MH17 wreckage should return to Malaysia'

    'MH17 wreckage should return to Malaysia'
    Former prime minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad said that the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 should be brought back...

    'MH17 wreckage should return to Malaysia'

    Evacuations, Rescue In Landslide That Partially Buried Vancouver Island House

    Evacuations, Rescue In Landslide That Partially Buried Vancouver Island House
    QUALICUM BEACH, B.C. — A dozen homes on southern Vancouver Island are under evacuation order at risk of a landslide after a bank collapsed, partially burying a two-storey home with a man inside.

    Evacuations, Rescue In Landslide That Partially Buried Vancouver Island House