Trump said to reject FBI’s denial of Obama wiretapping claims
Spokeswoman says president 'wants the truth to come out to the American people'
A spokeswoman for US President Donald Trump indicated that the president doesn’t believe FBI Director James Comey’s denial of the claim that his predecessor, Barack Obama, wiretapped Trump Tower during the presidential campaign.
“No, I don’t think he does,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC’s “Good Morning America,” on Monday when asked if Trump accepted Comey’s denial.
The president “wants the truth to come out to the American people and he is asking that it be done through the House Intelligence Committee and that that be the process that we go through,” she said.
Trump tweeted on Saturday that Obama had ordered wiretaps on his phones during the presidential race.
“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!” he tweeted.
He followed that by claiming that there was a legal case for Obama to answer.
“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 wrote.
Trump said in the tweets that he had “just found out” that Obama had ordered wiretaps, though it was unclear whether he was referring to a briefing, a conversation or a media report. The president in the past has tweeted about unsubstantiated and provocative reports he reads on blogs or conservative websites.
On Saturday Comey asked the Justice Department to publicly reject Trump’s explosive and unsubstantiated accusation, a claim Comey maintains is false and must be corrected, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Comey made the request on Saturday because “there is no evidence to support it and it insinuates that the FBI broke the law,” the paper reported the senior US officials as saying.
Trump made his claim in a tweet on Saturday, providing no evidence to back up the claim. Trump said the wiretapping happened in October at Trump Tower, the New York skyscraper where he ran his campaign and transition.
“How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process,” he wrote. “This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”
Obama denied the allegation via a spokesman as “simply false.” Lawmakers in both parties have asked for proof.
The Republican chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Devin Nunes, said his panel would also look into Trump’s claim.
Agencies contributed to this report.