President Trump on Saturday made a four-tweet accusation that former President Obama spied on him in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Trump's tweetstorm appears to be inspired by the Thursday evening show of right-wing talk radio host Mark Levin, who argued Obama orchestrated a "silent coup" on Trump using "police state" tactics.
A Breitbart article on Friday published a timeline to support Levin's allegation, emphasizing a Heat Street report of an October FISA court request from the Obama administration "focused on a computer server in Trump Tower suspected of links to Russian banks. No evidence [was] found — but the wiretaps continue[d], ostensibly for national security reasons." The Breitbart piece concludes the Obama team monitored Trump and then relaxed NSA information sharing rules to foster embarrassing leaks.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.