FBI chief asks Justice Dept to publicly reject Trump’s wiretap claim

WASHINGTON — Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey has asked the Department of Justice to publicly reject President Donald Trump’s assertion that former president Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr Trump’s phones, senior American officials said over the weekend. 

Mr Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, said officials, but the department has yet to release any such statement.

The White House has asked Congress, controlled by Mr Trump’s fellow Republicans, to examine whether the Obama administration abused its investigative authority during last year’s United States presidential campaign, as part of an ongoing congressional probe into Russia’s influence on the election.

Key members of Congress have said they will honour the President’s request.

Mr Trump on Saturday alleged, without offering supporting evidence, that Mr Obama ordered a wiretap of the phones at his then campaign headquarters in Trump Tower in New York.

“There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the President-elect at the time, or as a candidate or against his campaign,” former director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who left his post at the end of Mr Obama’s term in office in January, said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

Under American law, a federal court would have to have found probable cause that the target of the surveillance is an “agent of a foreign power” in order to approve a warrant authorising electronic surveillance of Trump Tower.

Asked whether there was such a court order, Mr Clapper said: “I can deny it.” Mr Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary under Mr Obama, said the former president did not have the authority to unilaterally order a wiretap of a US citizen.

“The President was not giving marching orders to the FBI about how to conduct its investigation,” Mr Earnest told ABC.

Mr Comey’s request is a remarkable rebuke of a sitting President, putting the nation’s top law enforcement official in the position of questioning the President’s truthfulness. 

His behind-the-scenes manoeuvring is certain to invite contrasts to his actions last year, when he spoke publicly about the Hillary Clinton email case and disregarded Justice Department entreaties not to.

It is not clear why Mr Comey did not issue the statement himself. He is the most senior law enforcement official who was kept on the job as the Obama administration gave way to the Trump administration. And while the Department of Justice applies for intelligence-gathering warrants, the FBI keeps its own set of records and is in a position to know whether Mr Trump’s claims are true. 

Democrats accused Mr Trump of trying to distract from the rising controversy about possible ties to Russia. His administration has come under pressure from FBI and congressional investigations into contacts between members of his campaign team and Russian officials.

Attorney-General Jeff Sessions last week bowed out of any probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election after it emerged he met last year with Russia’s ambassador while serving as a Trump campaign adviser. He maintained he did nothing wrong by failing to disclose the meetings. 

The White House offered no evidence on Sunday to back up Mr Trump’s accusation and did not say it was true. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Mr Trump and administration officials would have no further comment on the issue until Congress has completed its probe, potentially heading off attempts to get Mr Trump to explain his accusations. “Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling,” Mr Spicer said in a statement. 

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, appearing on ABC’s This Week, said the President has “made very clear what he believes, and he’s asking that we get down to the bottom of this. Let’s get the truth here”.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Mr Trump had either made a false accusation, or a judge had found probable cause to authorise a wiretap.

“Either way, the President’s in trouble,” Mr Schumer said on NBC’s Meet the Press, adding that if Mr Trump was spreading misinformation, “it shows this President doesn’t know how to conduct himself”.

Mr Trump should immediately turn over any evidence he has to support his allegation, said US Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“What we need to deal with is evidence, not just statements,” she said on CBS’ Face the Nation, adding she also had not seen evidence of collaboration “but we are in the very early stages of our investigation.”  AGENCIES