Trump's wiretapping claim comes under scrutiny — and under fire

President Trump
(Image credit: Getty Images)

President Trump's Saturday claim that former President Obama wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower during the election received widespread pushback on Saturday, predominantly from Trump's Democratic critics and former members of the Obama administration.

"No president can order a wiretap," tweeted former Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes. "Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you." Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) tweeted along similar lines. "The president can't 'order' a wiretap," he wrote. "So @realDonaldTrump is either lying, or he declassifed a judicial warrant possibly targeting him. I think we need to know which it is." Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) was less explicitly critical but indicated he'd like "to get to the bottom of this."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

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.

Sign up

In October, The Guardian reported the FISA Court rejected an FBI application for a warrant "to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials." The Guardian piece referenced the Heat Street account that "the FBI was finally granted a warrant in October" but noted it did not have independent confirmation of that story.

Now, as ThinkProgress comments, if Trump's allegations are correct, they could bring to light an investigation he would prefer not be public. However, a FISA warrant grant is not by itself damning: It is extremely unusual for the FISA Court, often labeled a "rubber stamp" for federal spies, to turn down warrant requests.

Explore More
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.