Government sources have revealed that F.B.I. Director James Comey asked the Department of Justice to make a public statement denying claims that former President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap of President Trump's phones during the 2016 election campaign.
Mr. Comey is reportedly worried that the president's tweets would be taken seriously and wanted to make sure the record was set straight. According to the sources, Comey doesn't believe President Trump's wiretapping claims are accurate and feels it puts the F.B.I. in a negative light.
Comey doesn't want the public to think that the F.B.I.
broke the law by illegally wiretapping a presidential candidate. The credibility of the F.B.I. has been in a tailspin since James Comey first announced in June 2016 that former democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, was grossly negligent for having set up a private server that could be easily hacked but found her not guilty of any criminal intent. Then in late October the F.B.I. director later told congress and the media that the F.B.I. was reopening the investigation into Hillary's email server.
Finally, Comey declared the case closed just a couple of days before the election due to overwhelming pressure by the Clinton camp and the media. Unfortunately for Hillary it was too late the damage had been done.
Hillary Clinton ultimately blamed Comey's announcement to reopen the investigation into her emails for causing her to lose the election.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer demands investigation over wiretapping claims
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has called for a congressional investigation into whether there was any wrongdoing by the former president and his administration to spy upon President Trump, in their goal of finding any collusion with the Russians to influence the 2016 election results.
A spokesman for Barack Obama has called the allegations absolutely false. Kevin Lewis, who is Mr. Obama's spokesman further went on to explain that there was a cardinal rule that no White House official was allowed to interfere in any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice.
The Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, also chimed in by saying that President Trump was eager to find out what really occurred and labelled it "potentially the greatest abuse of power" that the nation has ever witnessed.
Afterwards, she added that the American people have a right to know if this took place.
The origin of President Trump's wiretapping accusations
The origin of President Trump's wiretapping accusations made against the Obama administration stem from unproven claims by the conservative based Breitbart News website. The Breitbart News website alleges that secret warrants were issued allowing the wiretapping of phones belonging to the president and his aides at his Trump Tower location in New York. Similar to the unfounded claims by Mr. Trump that millions of illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election there is also no evidence to indicate that there was any wiretapping done on behalf of the Obama administration.
The president called for an investigation into voter fraud charges by so far no investigation has gone ahead. Some critics feel this is just another attempt by President Trump to deflect attention away from his potential ties to Russia and their interference in the 2016 election.
Comey declines to comment publicly on wiretapping claims
Mr. Comey so far has refused to comment publicly on the wiretapping charges made by President Trump. The F.B.I. does keep a database on citizens who have surveillance warrants issued upon them. If Mr. Comey wanted to he could easily refute President Donald Trump's allegations by acknowledging to the press that there are no records of any surveillance warrants against the president. It remains to be seen if the F.B.I. director will choose to do so in the coming days to put this issue to rest once and for all.
