Trump renews his wiretapping claim
President draws Germany’s Merkel into controversy
WASHINGTON — President Trump refused Friday to back off his unsubstantiated accusation that President Obama ordered surveillance of him, instead dismissing questions about it by cracking a joke that revived one of the most troublesome diplomatic episodes of Obama’s tenure.
Trump was asked twice about his wiretap claim during a White House news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He ignored the first question and only brief ly addressed the issue in answering the second.
“As far as wiretapping, I guess, by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps,” Trump said, gesturing toward Merkel and prompting an awkward smile from the German leader as she shuffled papers at an adjacent lectern.
Trump was referring to a disclosure in 2013 by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the U.S. had spied in Germany, including monitoring Merkel’s cellphone. The revelation dealt a major blow to U.S.-German relations and damaged Merkel’s standing at home. The U.S. had to make a significant diplomatic effort to patch up the relationship.
Friday’s comments, in which the president variously blamed reporters, a Fox News commentator and British officials for rousing the debate, added to what has become worldwide fallout from Trump’s unfounded allegations against Obama, made in a series of early-morning tweets March 4. The issue has consumed attention and energy that Trump might have otherwise spent to sell Republicans’ healthcare plan or his budget proposal or to contain the growing nuclear danger in North Korea.
Despite an avalanche of rebuttals from top intelligence officials and members of his own party, Trump has refused to apologize or retract the explosive allegation against his predecessor.
Republican leaders have
The Trump administration filed a notice in a Maryland federal district court on Friday that it would appeal the court’s decision halting the president’s revised travel ban.
The case, in which the judge on Thursday ruled against President Trump’s effort to stop immigration for 90 days from six majority-Muslim countries, heads to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. The administration is asking the appeals court to reverse the lower court’s decision.
The Maryland case, which was brought on behalf of immigrants and nonprofit groups that work with refugees, followed a Hawaii federal court’s broader order against the travel ban on Wednesday. That order stopped its pause on immigration from the six nations and its 120-day moratorium on refugee resettlement.
The travel ban was supposed to take effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Thursday.
Both courts found Trump’s travel rules to run afoul of the Constitution by discriminating against Muslims. The courts pointed to Trump’s statements promising to suspend Muslim immigration and interviews with campaign and White House officials to make their cases.
“President Trump’s Muslim ban has fared miserably in the courts, and for good reason — it violates fundamental provisions of our Constitution. We look forward to defending this careful and well-reasoned decision in the appeals court,” Omar Jadwat of the American Civil Liberties Union, who argued against the travel ban in the Maryland court, said in a statement Friday.
Trump has vowed to take the travel ban to the Supreme Court and has said it falls within his rights as president to control immigration and protect the country from terrorism.
Speaking at a Nashville rally this week, Trump called the revised travel order a “watered down” version of a Jan. 27 executive order that was halted by a Seattle federal judge. That judge’s decision was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The first travel ban stopped refugee resettlement from all countries for 120 days — and from Syria indefinitely — and banned citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days while the government was to review its vetting procedures.
The new order attempted to address court concerns by removing a preference for refugees who are religious minorities and giving exemptions from the travel order to green-card holders and those who already have valid visas. It also removed Iraq from the list of countries whose citizens could not come to the U.S.