US president Donald Tump has been told to hand over evidence Barack Obama tapped his phones, after making the extraordinary claims against his predecessor last week.
A Republican-chaired intelligence committee has asked the Trump administration to submit evidence Obama “wire tapped” the phones at Trump Tower during last year’s election, reports the ABC.
Trump accused Obama personally ordering phone tapping at his campaign headquarters in a series of fiery tweets.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” he wrote to his millions of online followers.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Trump asked Congress to investigate, but has stayed quiet since being told to hand over evidence backing up the claim.
Meanwhile, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said no such wire taps were ordered and that the Obama administration did not monitor Trump’s communications.
Under US law, it is illegal for the president to order wire tapping on private citizens.
For Trump’s phones to be tapped, the government would have had to go through the federal court and show proof Trump had committed a serious crime or was an agent of a foreign power, depending on whether it was a criminal investigation or a foreign intelligence one.
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