FBI Director James Comey asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to publicly reject President Donald Trump’s claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped the phones of Trump and his associates during the 2016 election, according to a report from the New York Times.
Comey made the request Saturday, after the president alleged that Obama wiretapped his phones in October, just before the election in November.
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
I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
The president went as far as to compare Obama’s alleged actions to former president Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, saying Obama is a “bad (or sick) guy.”
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
Comey reportedly requested that the DOJ publicly reject the president’s claim because it “falsely insinuates that the F.B.I. broke the law,” according to senior officials quoted by the New York Times.
President Trump doubled down on his assertion Sunday, asking for a congressional investigation into the matter. And former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who served under former President George W. Bush, said that President Trump is “likely correct that there was surveillance on Trump Tower,” but incorrect to accuse Obama.
“I think he’s right in that there was surveillance and that it was conducted at the behest of the attorney general, at the Justice Department,” Mukasey said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Both the FBI and the Justice Department have not responded to requests for comment.
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