3-6-2017-ERNIE ALLEN’S-TOP STORY-
A day after accusing the Obama administration of bugging his offices during the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump on Sunday called for a federal investigation into the allegations, reports CNN.
Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling,” Spicer said in a Twitter statement, writes CNN.
“President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.
Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted,” he added, notes the news outlet.
On Saturday, Trump took to Twitter and made claims that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower prior to the 2016 election. According to Vox, Trump’s tweets—which included no evidence —may have been prompted by the increased scrutiny surrounding his administration’s ties to Russia.
From Vox:
First, there’s Trump’s allegation that President Obama was personally involved in tapping him. He’s offered absolutely no evidence of this, so there’s no reason to believe it. And early Saturday afternoon, an Obama spokesperson released a statement strongly denying the claim, saying President Obama and White House officials did not interfere with Department of Justice investigations as a “rule.”
There’s also no indication so far that Trump’s phone calls were personally “tapped.” However, the question about whether “wires” and “phones” in Trump Tower “were tapped” before the election is much more difficult to untangle. That’s because there was and apparently still is a wide-ranging, FBI-led investigation into Trump associates and Russian operatives or banks. We don’t yet know the investigation’s full scope, or what it may have turned up.
The broader political context is that potential Russia-related scandals continue to dog the young administration, as this week’s controversy involving Attorney General Jeff Sessions makes clear — and that the president himself is still trying to figure out how to best respond.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions came under fire for failing to tell Congress that he met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign. Prior to that, national security aide Michael Flynn resigned under pressure after his meetings with Russia came to light.
SOURCE: CNN
