On March 4, 2017, Donald Trump tweeted that former President Barack Obama wiretapped the Trump tower during the election periods of 2016. These shocking tweets came shortly after Trump was inaugurated and in the wake of calls to investigate the alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. elections, leading to a divide with many people asking the president for proof it ever happened.
Donald Trump, however, did not give any evidence to these assertions, resulting in a call for a probe to confirm the truth, if any, in his claims. In the tweet, Trump called the alleged action by former president Obama 'Mycarthism'.
According to dictionary.com McCarthyism means: 'the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism.' Obviously, president Donald Trump was accusing Barack Obama of making use of “unfair investigative techniques” (wiretapping) to try to influence the outcome of the elections.
The matter finally laid to rest
However, almost immediately, Obama’s spokesperson decried the allegations raised in this tweet and said that Obama had at no time authorized the wiretapping of any American during his time as president. These led to debates on President Trump’s use of his Twitter handle to communicate with the American people.
According to a report by DW Made for Minds, James Comey, former FBI director, once said that he had no evidence to support claims of wiretapping. And most recently, American Oversight requested a Freedom of Information (FOI) on the findings by the FBI and Justice Department through their investigations into this matter. On Friday, the Department of Justice released a report stating that there is no evidence supporting the claim that Obama ever wiretapped Trump tower.
This hopefully lays the matter to rest.
Could it have been a smokescreen?
It is important to note though, that these tweets came at a time the media was awash with news of possible collusion between Trump and Russia in meddling with the outcome of the election. Now, that the FBI and The Department of Justice have declared that there was never any wiretapping it appears this may have been a way Trump tried to create a smokescreen when calls intensified over the possible meddling of the U.S.
election by the Russian government.
At the time, Trump’s former spokesman Sean Spicer claimed that there was truth to Trump’s claims and that Britain’s GCHQ spy agency helped Obama with the act. He claimed at the time that Fox news published a report that corroborated this claim.
