Back in March when President Trump suddenly claimed that former President Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential election, most knew that the accusation was false. There were already plenty of reasons for people to consider the claim a ridiculous one, given Donald Trump's history of exaggerating lies as opposed to telling the truth.
Nonetheless, the Justice Department (DOJ) -- led by Trump's personally selected attorney general Jeff Sessions -- went through the motions to investigate it anyway. That same DOJ decided to acknowledge in a court filing last Friday that they could not find any evidence for President Trump's claim.
The claim was made initially and spontaneously by Trump through Twitter.
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Support for Trump's claims
Trump's wire-tapping accusation would turn into a wasted of time and a waste of tax-payer money by the federal government to investigate the claim. Republicans led the investigation, saying that if President Trump's claims were true, then they would have to be investigated. Republicans fueled their base with the suggestion that if Obama was indeed wire-tapping a private citizen, that it was illegal and unconstitutional.
Immediately after Trump called for Congress to investigate, Rep. Devin Nunes, (R-Cali.) who is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, started the investigation. During that period of time, the House Intelligence Committee sent requests to the DOJ asking for them to come up with evidence of the claim. It was reported on March 13 that the DOJ requested more time to find it.
At a certain point, even Nunes has said outright -- perhaps using plausible deniability -- that there was no evidence to the claim.
That same week, White House aide Kellyanne Conway had an interview where she said that the surveillance Trump was under was perhaps broader than the President had initially described. At the time, she suggested other ways to have surveillance on someone, using televisions sets and microwaves.
Devin Nunes continues wiretapping claims
It was suggested back in April that when the President "finally" put the Wiretapping claims to rest, that he had tested out the cycle of the Trump administration's new propaganda efforts, by getting federal departments to react and investigate such claims. This would not have been possible without an accomplice such as Devin Nunes who further extended President Trump's claim by meeting with White House aides after hours. Nunes had reportedly disappeared one evening and appeared the next morning with "intelligence" that showed proof of surveillance. What was especially controversial about his actions was that he had not shared it with the House Intelligence Committee before he went public with it.
Rep. Nunes did this by claiming that the Obama administration had "unmasked" the names of certain people in the Trump campaign. It was that unmasking that even a fellow Republican suggested was a Nunes creation. With that and the acknowledgement from the DOJ, it's a further confirmation of more lies from the administration. Here is one report by Jake Tapper from CNN where he points to these issues specifically.