Trump claims Obama tapped his phone before election, without giving evidence

President Donald Trump on Saturday accused his predecessor Barack Obama of “tapping” his phone during last year’s White House campaign, without providing any evidence of the explosive charge.

“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump wrote a day after departing Washington for a weekend getaway at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort for the fourth time in five weeks.

“Is it legal for a sitting President to be “wire tapping” a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!” Trump wrote.

“How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!,” he wrote in another tweet.

“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!” he said in yet another.

How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

The White House did not immediately reply to inquiries about what led to the president’s tweets. A spokesman for Obama did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The president may have been basing his statements on claims made Thursday by conservative radio host Mark Levin, later picked up by the Breitbart News website.

In recent days, Breitbart has published reports citing other anonymously sourced or unconfirmed reports about the Obama administration’s attempts to investigate Trump campaign ties to Moscow.

Top Obama advisor Ben Rhodes issued a searing response on Twitter.

“No President can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you,” Rhodes wrote.

No President can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. https://t.co/lEVscjkzSw

— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) March 4, 2017

Trump leveled the charges in a flurry of tweets shortly after dawn, amid an avalanche of recent revelations about communications between Russian officials and some of his senior aides, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Trump repeatedly has denied having any personal ties to the Kremlin, and his aides have denied or played down contacts with Russian officials.

But the accusations have continued amid almost daily leaks to the press that have revealed new details about links between Moscow and senior Trump officials.

One such revelation earlier this week in the Washington Post about a meeting between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak prompted the Republican former US senator to recuse himself from any investigations into the Trump campaign’s possible Russia ties.

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

Sessions had told a Senate committee under oath that he “did not have communications with the Russians,” but reporters found that he had actually met the Russian ambassador twice in the months before taking up his post as attorney general, America’s top law enforcement officer.

Trump has expressed his displeasure over the charges — and the barrage of leaks that led to them — lashing out in tweets Friday directed at the top Democrats in the Republican-led Congress — Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi.

The businessman-turned-politician, who has accused his political foes of conducting “a total witch hunt” on Saturday directed his Twitter tirade at his Democratic predecessor.

Since US intelligence took the unprecedented step of publicly accusing Russia of trying to swing the November election in Trump’s favor, questions have swirled about whether some in Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow.

But it has now emerged that a slew of associates aside from Sessions and already fired national security advisor Michael Flynn met Kislyak before Trump took office.

The meetings have raised red flags for Democrats, who have called for Sessions to resign and be investigated for perjury.