donald trump wiretapping barack obama

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Donald Trump goes on Twitter rant, accuses Obama of tapping his phones

Donald Trump appears to have gotten his information from right-wing media outlets.

 

Josh Katzowitz

Tech

Posted on Mar 4, 2017   Updated on May 24, 2021, 9:49 pm CDT

 

President Donald Trump, under increasing fire about his possible ties to Russia and how that affected last November’s election, went on a Twitter rant early Saturday morning in which he accused former President Barack Obama of tapping his phones and called him “a bad (or sick guy).”

 

While this rant seemingly came from nowhere, Politico linked it back to conservative talk radio host Mark Levin who said Thursday that Obama had used “police tactics” to try to hurt Trump as his presidential campaign neared its end. Levin said the Obama administration got court authorization to spy on Trump Towers, and he called it a “silent coup” by Obama.

That led right-wing website Breitbart to run a 989-word story on Levin’s accusations on Friday. Then, Trump tweeted early Saturday morning.

The New York Times reported in January that when the FBI, the National Security Agency, and the CIA were investigating the possible ties between members of the Trump campaign and Russia, they had examined “intercepted communications and financial transactions” as part of their investigation. Those wiretapped communication then were reportedly provide to the White House.

But that wouldn’t have been Obama ordering an apparent wiretapping on Trump Tower.

Now, though, there’s this question about whether Trump just revealed previously classified information.

https://twitter.com/justinhendrix/status/838022661586448384

Update 8:39am CT: This is how a top Obama aide responded to Trump’s charges.

Update 12:12pm CT: Another Obama spokesman has weighed in on Trump’s accusations.

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*First Published: Mar 4, 2017, 7:53 am CST