On March 3, President Donald Trump accused President Barack Obama of wiretapping phones at Trump Tower before the election.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump tweeted.
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Trump asked Congress to investigate the matter.
“President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in a March 5 statement. “Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted.”
What’s the Origin of the Accusation?
The wiretapping accusation appears to originate from a story broken by Louise Mensch in a Nov. 7, 2016 Heat Street article.
Referring to “[t]wo separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community” she wrote that “the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.”
FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) is a warrant that grants the FBI permission to collect evidence, including emails and phone calls, regarding U.S. citizens and permanent residents who may be acting, even unwittingly, as “agents of a foreign power.”
Mensch further wrote that “it is thought in the intelligence community that the warrant covers any ‘U.S. person’ connected to this investigation, and thus covers Donald Trump and at least three further men who have either formed part of his campaign or acted as his media surrogates.”
Who Are the Three Men?
On Jan. 19, The New York Times, via unnamed sources, revealed three men connected to Trump who were allegedly investigated for their connections with Russia: Paul Manafort, Carter Page, and Roger Stone.
The article also acknowledged the investigation may have nothing to do with alleged Russian interference with the presidential race.
Manafort was a longtime PR adviser for the pro-Russian political camp in Ukraine. Trump enlisted Manafort as an adviser in March 2016 and encouraged him to quit in August when his dealings in Ukraine surfaced. The Times reported then that Manafort may have helped the Ukrainian politicians launder money.
An intelligence official told the Times that the FBI looked into Manafort for his Ukrainian connections, not necessarily for any Russian influence on the Trump campaign.
