Trump Claims Obama Had His Phones Wiretapped

Trump Claims Obama Had His Phones Wiretapped
President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Feb. 27, 2017. Trump is accusing former President Barack Obama of having Trump's telephones 'wire tapped' during last year's election. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File
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Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist in the White House, is the former executive chairman of Breitbart News.

FISA is a 1978 law that created a system to hear requests to surveil foreign intelligence agents. It differs from a regular criminal warrant because it does not require the government to provide probable cause that a crime has occurred. Instead, under FISA, the government must simply provide evidence that the target of an investigation is an agent of a foreign power.

Such targetable agents would include Russian diplomats such as Sergei Kislyak, the ambassador who spoke with a number of Trump aides. But a FISA warrant could also include others for whom investigators could muster probable cause, potentially including entities directly connected to Trump.