Trump tells Congress to investigate Obama over wiretapping, but offers no evidence
Obama spokesman calls allegations ‘simply false’ after Trump claims his phones were tapped
The White House demanded on Sunday that Congress investigate whether former president Barack Obama abused his executive powers in connection with the 2016 presidential election.
President Donald Trump levelled that claim on Saturday when he accused his predecessor of tapping telephones at Trump Tower. But Trump offered no supporting evidence, a spokesman for Obama denied the claim as “simply false” and lawmakers in both parties asked for proof.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement on Sunday that reports “concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling”.
Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen
“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.
It was unclear what reports Spicer was referring to, and what prompted Trump to make the allegation.
Spicer ended the statement by saying that neither the White House nor Trump will comment further “until such oversight is conducted”.
In a series of morning tweets on Saturday, Trump suggested Obama was behind a politically motivated plot to upend his campaign. He compared the alleged events to “Nixon/Watergate” and “McCarthyism!” And he called Obama a “Bad (or sick) guy.”