It's about time someone starts doing something about these outlandish claims
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.ddfc2d4d2414
FBI Director James B. Comey asked the Justice Department this weekend to issue a statement refuting President Trump?s claim that President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap of Trump?s phones before the election, according to U.S. officials, but the department did not do so.
Comey made the request on Saturday after Trump accused Obama on Twitter of having his ??wires tapped? in Trump Tower.? The White House expanded on Trump?s comments Sunday with a call for a congressional probe of his allegations.
The revelation, first reported by the New York Times, underscores the fraught nature of the FBI?s high-profile investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. A key question fueling that inquiry is whether Trump associates colluded with Russian officials to help Trump win.
Neither Justice nor the FBI would comment Sunday.
The development came as Trump's charge against Obama ? leveled without any evidence ? was being rebuffed both inside and outside of the executive branch. It drew a blunt, on-the-record denial by a top intelligence official who served in the Obama administration.
Speaking on NBC News on Sunday morning, former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. denied that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) wiretap was authorized against Trump or the campaign during his tenure.
?There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect at the time as a candidate or against his campaign,? Clapper said on ?Meet the Press,? adding that he would ?absolutely? have been informed if the FBI had received a FISA warrant against either.
?I can deny it,? Clapper said emphatically.
In his claims early Saturday morning, the president tweeted that he ?just found out? that Obama had ?my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower? before the election, comparing it to ?McCarthyism.?
?Is it legal for a sitting President to be 'wire tapping' a race for president prior to an election?? Trump asked in another tweet. ?Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!?
By Sunday morning, the White House doubled down on Trump's explosive tweetstorm and called for the congressional probe.
[Trump, citing no evidence, accuses Obama of ?Nixon/Watergate? plot to wiretap Trump Tower]
Current and former government officials said such surveillance would not have been approved by any senior Justice official in the Obama administration. And Trump?s allegation raised hackles in the FBI leadership, insinuating as it did that the bureau may have acted illegally to wiretap a presidential candidate without probable cause that he was an ?agent of a foreign power,? as the foreign intelligence surveillance law requires.