President Obama doesn’t believe Donald Trump.
Regarding President Obama’s reaction to his successor’s unsubstantiated wiretapping claims a source close to the former president tells NBC News Mr. Obama “rolled his eyes.” This person familiar with the president’s thinking says Mr. Obama believes the claims “undermine the integrity of the office of the president,” but don’t undermine his own integrity, because “he didn’t do it.”
The FBI director doesn’t believe Donald Trump.
FBI Director James Comey was "incredulous" over the weekend after President Donald Trump's allegation via Twitter that former President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap of his phones during the campaign, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
Trey Gowdy doesn’t believe Donald Trump.
“I don't think the FBI is the Obama team and I don't think the men and women who are career prosecutors at DOJ belong to any team other than a blindfolded woman holding a pair of scales,” Gowdy said.
Not even Sean Spicer believes Donald Trump.
“No, that’s above my pay grade,” said Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary and a feisty Trump loyalist, when asked on Tuesday at an on-camera briefing if he had seen any evidence to back up Mr. Trump’s accusation. The reporters kept at him, but Mr. Spicer pointedly and repeatedly refused to offer personal assurances that the president’s statements were true.
And since Trump insists on bringing Congress into the picture, in hopes that Jason Chaffetz can Benghazi it into a lasting distraction from everything else that’s going on in his White House, he might want to worry that Congress just might not carry his water on this one.
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Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Lindsey Graham have teamed up for the nicest little “please proceed” since the Obama–Romney debate.
As Chairman and Ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, we would take any abuse of wiretapping authorities for political purposes very seriously. We would be equally alarmed that a court found enough evidence of criminal activity or conduct with a foreign power to legally authorize a wiretap of President Trump, the Trump Campaign, or Trump Tower. We look forward to your response.
There’s a wiretap out there? Really. Why we’ll look into that immediately, Mr. Trump. And if it turns out that President Obama, who made it through eight year in office without a single scandal and handled the transition to your regime with consummate dignity, was actually violating the law and listening in with a van lifted from the set of The Wire. Well then, good for you.
But if it turns out that this is a false accusation, or that the FISA court found a very good reason for looking into communications coming out of Trump Tower. Then … hmm.
Trump shouldn’t mind people taking a nice look at this, since he’s so certain.
Trump asserts the alleged wiretapping of his phones as a fact that certainly occurred; there is no "if." He claims Obama ordered — or was at least involved in — the alleged wiretapping. Trump questioned the legality of such a move, asking "is it legal" and adding "a good lawyer could make a great case" about it.
That sounds like a good idea, as well. Once we find out if there’s anything behind his, let’s bring in a good lawyer. Maybe even a special lawyer.
