Poll spying ‘illegal’

Trump accuses FBI of wrongdoing but produces no evidence

DONALD Trump says documents released by the FBI relating to his former adviser Carter Page’s Russian ties show his 2016 presidential campaign was illegally spied upon by US law enforcement, but the US president has offered no evidence to support his assertion.

In a series of Twitter posts on Sunday, Mr Trump also accused the Federal Bureau of had collaborated with the Russian government.

“Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC,” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the Democratic National Committee.

“Republicans must get tough now. An illegal Scam!”

A White House spokeswoman referred questions on why Mr Trump believed the documents proved the FBI and DOJ demonstrated illegal conduct or were misleading courts to Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who did not respond to a request for comment.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to requests to comment on Mr Trump’s allegation; the FBI also declined to comment.

Mr Page told CNN on Sunday he was never an agent of a foreign power, and that the documents overstated his ties to Russia.

“I’ve never been an agent of a foreign power by any stretch of the imagination,” he told CNN. “I’ve never been anywhere near what’s being described here.” Investigation and the Department of Justice of misleading the courts during a probe of Russian interference in the election, but did not elaborate.

The FBI released 412 pages of heavily redacted documents on Saturday showing how in 2016 it requested Mr Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, be surveilled as part of that investigation on the grounds it believed Mr Page