The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has confirmed that there is no evidence to back up President Donald Trump’s claim that former president Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower in New York during last year’s election campaign.
“Both FBI and NSD [National Security Division] confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets,” the department said in a court filing dated Friday that came about in response to a freedom of information request by American Oversight, a government watchdog.
The NSD is a division of the Department of Justice.
The FBI had previously shot down the claims, which were made as controversy over alleged links between Trump’s campaign team and Russia intensified earlier this year.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump tweeted on March 4.
“How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” he added.
He also repeated the claim during a White House press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later that month.
Former White House spokesman Sean Spicer also defended the claim and cited a Fox News report which alleged that Britain’s GCHQ spy agency did the wiretapping for Obama.
National Security Agency Director Admiral Mike Rogers strongly rebutted the suggestion, telling a congressional hearing in March: “That would be expressly against the construct of the Five Eyes agreement that’s been in place for decades.”
He was referring to the intelligence alliance of Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the US.
“The FBI and Department of Justice have now sided with former [FBI] Director James Comey and confirmed in writing that President Trump lied when he tweeted that former President Obama ‘wiretapped’ him at Trump Tower,” American Oversight executive director Austin Evers said.
Trump is facing multiple investigations into alleged collusion with Russia, including one led by special counsel for Russian interference in last year’s US elections Robert Mueller, who was appointed following Trump’s sacking Comey as FBI director.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman on Wednesday confirmed that the Kremlin last year received an e-mail from a lawyer working for Trump about building a Trump Tower skyscraper in Moscow — despite assertions by the then-presidential candidate that he had no current business ties to the country.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia