Trump In Showdown With FBI Over Wiretapping Accusations
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- President Donald Trump is headed toward a showdown with his FBI director over accusations of election wiretapping.
Over the weekend, President Trump charged former President Obama with spying on communications from Trump Tower during the election.
Without providing evidence, Trump tweeted "How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!"
That accusation prompted FBI Director James Comey to request the Justice Department publicly reject the president's claims.
President Obama's director of national intelligence denied President Trump's charge that the Obama White House spied on Trump during the 2016 campaign.
"There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign," said former Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on NBC's 'Meet The Press.'
In a series of Tweets on Saturday morning, Trump said, "Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory calling it "a new low."
FBI Director James Comey asked the Justice Department to publicly reject the president's claim. Department leadership has remained silent.
In a statement, the White House asked the Republican controlled Congress to investigate "whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016."
White House officials could not cite a source for the president's wire-tapping charge.
It was all news to Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio.
"I've never heard that before and I have no evidence or no one has ever presented anything to me that indicates anything like that," said Rubio on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'
Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Trump's charges were strategic.
"This feels like an attempt where the president is trying to distract us," said Warner on 'Face the Nation.'
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the president was trying a dangerous power play.
"It's called a wrap-up smear. You make up something. Then you have the press write about it. And then you say, everybody is writing about this charge. It's a tool of an authoritarian," said Pelosi on CNN's State of the Union.
