03 September, 2017
The court filing stated there were "no records related to wiretaps as described" by Trump. "Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory.
"Terrible!" Trump wrote in the first of four tweets on March 4. As the president and his legal team continue their smear campaign against Mr. Comey, Special Counsel Mueller and others investigating him, this filing confirms that even Trump's own Department of Justice does not believe he has credibility on a key element of the Russian Federation investigation. "Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!"
Former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes confirmed the allegations were false and no President has ever been permitted to legally order the device.
"I have no information that supports those tweets and we have looked carefully within the FBI", Comey said, adding that the DOJ "has no information that supports those tweets".
The watchdog organization sued the department in April seeking any warrant applications and court orders to wiretap Trump Tower after its FOIA request was denied.
FBI Director James B. Comey (C), Commissioner Edwin Meese III (L), and Commissioner Timothy J. Roemer speak during a news conference on the release of the 9/11 Review Commission report in Washington March 25, 2015.
In a Friday night court filing, the Justice Department said there was no evidence to support President Donald Trump's claim that former President Barack Obama ordered Trump Tower to be wiretapped.
The White House tried to say Trump wasn't explicitly referring to a wiretap, but James Comey, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director fired by Trump in May, also asked the Justice Department in March to refute the claim. The disclosure of the existence or nonexistence of other responsive records "would cause harm to national security" and is therefore exempted under the law, the motion said.
But the Trump administration did not provide evidence that such surveillance took place, and a spokesman for Obama rejected that the administration wiretapped the real estate mogul's building. "As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any USA citizen". Any suggestion otherwise is simply false'.