US President Donald Trump has accused his predecessor of wire-tapping his phone a month before he was elected.
President Trump tweeted
early on Saturday: "Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires
tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is
McCarthyism!"
He went on to say that a court had earlier denied a wiretap request. The US president has given no details to back up the claim - or suggested which court order he was referring to.
Media
reports in the past few weeks have suggested the FBI had sought a
warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance court (Fisa) last
summer in order to monitor members of the Trump team suspected of
irregular contacts with Russian officials.
The warrant was first turned down but then approved in October, according to the media reports.
There has been no official confirmation and it is also not clear if this evolved into a full investigation.
Read the tweets below...
There has been no comment yet from ex-President Barack Obama.
Mr
Trump tweeted: "I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of
the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just
prior to the Election."
He called the alleged tapping "a new low"
and said "This is Nixon/Watergate" - referring to the most notorious
political scandal of 1972, which led to the downfall of President
Richard Nixon after a web of political spying, sabotage and bribery was
exposed by the media.
He also called it McCarthyism - the persecution for US Communists and their allies led by Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s.
Mr Trump's tweets followed allegations made by conservative radio host Mark Levin, which were later picked up by Breitbart News, the website founded by Steve Bannon, now Mr Trump's chief strategist.
Source...BBC
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