‘SICK’ OBAMA SPYING ROW
President wire tap claim
STAR REPORTER DONALD Trump accused “sick” Barack Obama of tapping his phone in the run-up to the election.
The US president claimed the former leader meddled with his line a month before he won his place in the White House.
He tweeted: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘ wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
“How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” Mr Trump said in a series of Tweets from 5.35am yesterday morning.
Mr Trump, who arrived in Florida on Friday for his fourth getaway at his Mar-a-Lago resort in five weeks, gave no details to back SEEING RED: The President steps from Air Force One in Orlando on Friday. Below, with Obama at his inauguration HELENE PERKINS up the claim. But his tweets followed allegations made by conservative radio host Mark Levin. They were later picked up by right-wing website Breitbart News, founded by Steve Bannon, Mr Trump’s chief strategist.
The presenter called for an official investigation into a “silent coup” by Obama’s administration.
Media reports in the past few weeks claimed the FBI asked for a warrant last summer from the foreign intelligence surveillance court (Fisa) to keep an eye on Trump’s team but the warrant was at first turned down.
The reports suggested it was rubber-stamped in October, sparking fury from Mr Trump.
No one has officially confirmed what has happened. A spokesman for Mr Obama said: “Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
Mr Trump also 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! I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!”
Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said: “I think this is just the president up early doing his routine tweeting. Presidents don’t wiretap anyone.
“These are pursued by the Department of Justice in accordance with the FBI and signed off by a judge.”