Trump unconvinced by FBI director’s rejection of wiretap rumors,
WASHINGTON — If Donald Trump wants to know whether he was the subject of surveillance by the U.S. government, he may be uniquely positioned to get an answer.
A series of weekend tweets by the president focused public attention on intelligence collection efforts long shrouded in secrecy. He accused former President Barack Obama of ordering wiretaps on his phones but offered no proof to back the claim, and the White House then called on Congress to investigate the allegations.
But former government lawyers say Trump hardly needs Congress to answer this question.
“The intelligence community works for the president, so if a president wanted to know whether surveillance had been conducted on a particular target, all he’d have to do is ask,” said Todd Hinnen, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division during the Obama administration and a National Security Council staff member under George W. Bush.
The latest storm began Saturday when Trump tweeted, “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 followed up with: “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”
The Justice Department, not the president, would have the authority to conduct such surveillance, and officials have not confirmed any such action. Through a spokesman, Obama said neither he nor any White House official had ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Obama’s top intelligence official, James Clapper, also said Trump’s claims were false, and a U.S. official told The Associated Press the FBI asked the Justice Department to rebut Trump’s assertions.
Why turn to Congress, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer was asked on Monday.
“My understanding is that the president directing the Department of Justice to do something with respect to an investigation that may or may not occur with evidence may be seen as trying to interfere,” Spicer said. “And I think that we’re trying to do this in the proper way.”
He indicated Trump was responding to media reports rather than any word from the intelligence community. Other officials have suggested the president was acting on other information.
As for the genesis of a possible wiretap, it is possible the president was referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a 1978 law that permits investigators, with a warrant, to collect the communications of someone they suspect of being an agent of a foreign power. That can include foreign ambassadors or other foreign officials who operate in the U.S. whose communications are recorded for counterintelligence purposes as a matter of routine.
The government’s use of that act is secret, the warrant application process classified. But, as president, Trump has the authority to declassify anything. And were such a warrant to exist, he could theoretically make it public as well.