Don bug claim debunked
THE JUSTICE Department has tossed cold water on President Trump’s zero-evidence claim that President Obama had the Trump Tower penthouse under surveillance during the election.
Justice officials said “no such records exist” to back up Trump’s assertion, which he made in a series of bombshell tweets in March.
It’s the first time the Justice Department has officially denied the wild claim President Obama ordered Trump’s residence bugged last October.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump tweeted in his early morning March 4 cyber rant.
He also called Obama a “bad (or sick) guy” for ordering the supposed eavesdropping.
The DOJ finding was part of a Friday filing in response to a legal challenge by transparency group American Oversight.
The watchdog organization sued the department in April seeking any warrant applications and court orders to wiretap Trump Tower after its Freedom of Information Act request was denied.
Specific to Trump’s March 4 claims, the DOJ “has no records” the then-candidate’s home or campaign headquarters — also in the building — were bugged by the federal government near the end of the campaign.
But law enforcement officials declined to confirm or deny any other part of Trump Tower was under watch. Doing so, officials said in the filing, could compromise other possible investigations. The only other time law enforcement has contradicted Trump’s claims came from in late March, when then-FBI Director James Comey said the FBI couldn’t find proof to back up the charges.
There was “no information that supports those tweets and we have looked carefully inside the FBI,” Comey testified under oath.
American Oversight bashed Trump in a statement on Saturday, saying the “filing serves as further proof that the president’s words simply cannot be trusted.”
“The FBI and Department of Justice have now sided with former Director Comey and confirmed in writing that President Trump lied when he tweeted that former President Obama ‘wiretapped’ him at Trump Tower,” said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight.
Trump’s explosive accusation created waves throughout Washington, especially since Trump offered up no evidence to back it up.
White House officials later said the President was referring to Trump aides who showed up in conversations with foreign officials under routine surveillance.
Reports later indicated that former National Security Adviser Susan Rice ordered some of those staffers identified or “unmasked.”
Although Trump’s home might not have been bugged, other residences have been under federal probe in the past.
One just three floors below Trump’s penthouse was reportedly under surveillance from 2011 to 2013 in connection with a Russian gambling ring.
More than 30 people were indicted after a Trump Tower raid in April 2013.