Silke Jasso
President Trump recently accused former President Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign.
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https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/837989835818287106
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer conducted an off-camera briefing on Monday to address the claim as well as the whirlwind media fallout.
45 min out from Spicer #offcamera briefing. Only action today. #currentstatus pic.twitter.com/QIDgiwpFAn
— Ben (@CSPANBen) March 6, 2017
There, Spicer justified Trump’s claim.
Spicer on Trump tapping claim: "There's no question something happened. The question is – is it surveillance, is it a wiretap, or whatever?"
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 6, 2017
“There’s no question something happened,” he asserted. But there was still a question of whether that “something” was surveillance, a wiretap, or whatever else.
FBI Director James B. Comey urged the Justice Department to reject the claim, as any other would implicate it in wrongdoing.
At another point in the press conference, Spicer was asked whether or not Trump meant to purposefully implicate the FBI’s involvement in any potential abuse of executive power:
White House @PressSec Sean Spicer: "I'm just going to let the tweet speak for itself." pic.twitter.com/MsxgEQbXI4
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 6, 2017
“I’m just going to let the tweet speak for itself,” Spicer said, saying that he needed further clarification in order to answer.
Spicer also tweeted out the following statement on Sunday:
(1/4) Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling.
— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) March 5, 2017
(2/4) President Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees
— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) March 5, 2017
(3/4) exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.
— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) March 5, 2017
(4/4) Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted.
— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) March 5, 2017
Though a spokesman for Obama denied the unverified claim, the Trump administration called for an investigation into the matter.
