BREAKING: Paul Ryan Confirms Trump Was Wiretapped At Trump Tower!
Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
They were arguably Donald Trump's most striking claims to date: a series of tweets, accusing then-President Barack Obama of wire-tapping Trump Tower during the election.
They were not backed up by any evidence, and Mr Obama's spokesman and former US intelligence chief James Clapper denied that any wiretap had been ordered.
President Trump urged Congress to investigate, alongside its current investigations into allegations of Russian hacking during the election. But still no evidence has emerged.
What does the FBI say?
FBI Director James Comey for the first time on Monday confirmed to the House Intelligence Committee that the agency is investigating possible links between Russia and Mr Trump's associates as part of a broader inquiry into Moscow's interference in last year's election.
He also disputed Mr Trump's wiretapping claims.
"With respect to the president's tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI," he told the panel.
After Mr Trump's tweets earlier this month, the New York Times quoted unnamed senior officials reporting that Mr Comey had said the claim was false and had asked the justice department to publicly reject it.
Mr Clapper said the intelligence agencies he had supervised did not wiretap Mr Trump last year, and nor did the FBI obtain a court order to monitor Mr Trump's phones.
As intelligence director, he told NBC, he would have known about a "court order on something like this".
This is a reference to the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which can grant wiretaps on the grounds of national security.
Has Congress found any evidence?
Several senior Republicans have rejected the allegations after congressional committees looked into them.
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr said on 16 March there were "no indications" that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the US government either before or after Election Day 2016.
Earlier that day, House Speaker Paul Ryan also said "no such wiretap existed".
And the previous day, House of Representatives Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes said: "We don't have any evidence."
"I don't think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower," he told a news conference.
"Are you going to take the tweets literally?" asked Rep Nunes. "If so, clearly the president was wrong."
What about the justice department?
It hasn't said yet. It has asked for more time to respond to the House Intelligence Committee's request that it provide evidence.
But Mr Comey on Monday also said the justice department found no evidence to support the president's allegations.
Is the White House standing by its claims?
Yes. "He stills stands by it", asserted White House press secretary Sean Spicer in the wake of the congressional intelligence committees' statements.
He said the congressional investigations "have not been provided with all of the information".
However, despite the fact that one of Mr Trump's tweets specifically accused Mr Obama of tapping his phones, the subsequent White House definition of wiretap is broad.
"Wiretap covers a lot of different things. I think you're going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks," Mr Trump told Fox News on 16 March.
Two days earlier, Mr Spicer had said: "The president used the word wiretap in quotes to mean broadly surveillance and other activities."
Mr Spicer has cited comments made on Fox News by former judge Andrew Napolitano, who said "three intelligence sources" had told Fox News that President Obama had used the British spy agency GCHQ to install wiretaps.
He said the White House was "not passing judgement" on such reports, but they needed looking into.
GCHQ, which does not normally comment on news reports, said the claims were "nonsense, utterly ridiculous and should be ignored".
On Monday, National Security Agency (NSA) Director Michael Rogers also rejected the claims that British intelligence services were behind the wiretapping claims during testimony before the House committee.
The allegation "clearly frustrates a key ally of ours", he said.
Could Obama have ordered the surveillance?
Mr Obama's team say Mr Trump's tweets are "simply false".
A warrant, if it existed, would most likely have been ordered by the Department of Justice independently of the White House.
Former press secretary Josh Earnest told ABC: "This may come as a surprise to the current occupant of the Oval Office, but the president of the United States does not have the authority to unilaterally order the wiretapping of an American citizen.
"If the FBI decided to use their wiretapping authority in the context of the counterintelligence or criminal investigation, it would require FBI investigators, officials at the Department of Justice going to a federal judge and making a case, and demonstrating probable cause to use that authority to conduct the investigation. That is a fact."
The only way Mr Obama could have ordered surveillance without going through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa court) is if there were no US citizens involved.
In this case, considering the target is allegedly Trump Tower - which definitely involves American citizens - this would have been hard to argue.
What is the Fisa court?
The Fisa court has been described by CNN as possibly "the most powerful court you have never heard of".
The secretive court approves surveillance warrants under Fisa against "agents of a foreign power", mainly to either the FBI or NSA.
In this case, the reported target of the FBI's application was two Russian banks.
Any application has to be approved by one of 11 sitting judges.
Where did the wiretap claim come from?
Rumours of an order granted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act have been circulating for some time.
According to Ms Mensch, it was issued in connection with a private server and activity between two Russia banks.
She also mentions - like Mr Trump in his tweets - that an earlier order had been turned down.
In January, the BBC's Paul Wood - writing in the wake of claims the Russian government had compromising material on Mr Trump - said he also knew of the Fisa order.
Neither Mr Trump nor his associates are mentioned in the order, our correspondent reported.
The Guardian also mentioned the order at about the same time.
The recent Southwest Airlines tragedy that claimed the life of a woman who was sucked through an aircraft window also showed up a worrying lack of knowledge about basic safety procedures. An image shared online by Marty Martinez, a passenger on board flight 1380 from New York to Dallas, shows him and his fellow passengers wearing oxygen masks, which dropped down after one of the jet’s engines blew. Oxygen masks should be placed over the nose and mouth (Facebook/Marty Martinez ) However, as travel expert and former flight attendant Bobby Laurie pointed out on social media, none of the people in the picture are wearing their masks correctly. He tweeted : “PEOPLE: Listen to your flight attendants! ALMOST EVERYONE in this photo from @SouthwestAir #SWA1380 today is wearing their mask WRONG. Put down the phone, stop with the selfies and LISTEN. **Cover your NOSE AND MOUTH.” In the photo, the three passengers clearly shown only have the mask over their mouths,
Devin Nunes set off a storm with the FISA memo, which now has the whole nation talking. Reactions have been split, with many saying this is a major break through and there should be prosecutions. While others, mainly from the left, are saying this is a bunch of nothing. Nunes has come under harsh attack from the left since the memo’s release, with some even going as far to say he is a Russian agent. Brett Baier was able to have a moment to ask Nunes about what he thinks about the aftermath of the release and what comes next. And what Nunes said will likely not cause the situation to simmer down. In fact, it appears that this is just the beginning. See The Video Below: NUNES REVEALS WHO HIS NEXT TARGET IS Devin Nunes appeared calm and collected in his interview, despite the new BOMB he dropped on the State Departmemt. Nunes said the recent memo release “completes the FISA-abuse portion” of the investigation and stated: “We are in the middle of (what he calls)
Donald Trump is set to reverse an order by former President Barack Obama to close Guantanamo Bay, it has been claimed. The notorious military prison holds suspected terrorists but has attracted fierce criticism from human rights groups. During his time in office, President Obama signed an executive order for Guantanamo to be closed "as soon as practicable". In practice, he wasn't able to end the facility entirely due to opposition from US Congress. But hundreds of prisoners were moved to the mainland and just 41 remain. During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump made clear his support for Guantanamo and said he wanted to "load it up with bad dudes". According to Politico, he now intends to come good on that promise and will start by signing an executive order reversing the Obama mandate. He is expected to make the announcement during the State of the Union address on Tuesday or perhaps before, the reports claim.
Comments
Post a comment