President Trump repeats wiretapping accusations, dredges up major diplomatic scandal

(Image credit: Screenshot/CNN via Twitter)

published 17 March 2017

President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are, by the looks of things, probably not exactly going to be best friends. On Friday, when trying to highlight some common ground between them, Trump dredged up a major diplomatic scandal between the U.S. and Germany. "As far as wiretapping by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps," Trump said, a reference to the National Security Agency secretly tapping phone calls of the German chancellery for decades, a revelation that first came to light in a 2013 WikiLeaks report.

In regards to Trump's own claims of being wiretapped by Obama, on Thursday the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said there are "no indications" that anything of the sort happened. Nevertheless, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer alleged Obama was able to get intelligence on Trump through the British spy agency GCHQ — a theory that was first floated by former judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News. Spicer quoted Napolitano as saying: "Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He didn't use the NSA, he didn't use the CIA, he didn't use the FBI, and he didn't use the Department of Justice, he used GCHQ." The United States later formally apologized to Britain for citing the untrue rumor, though Spicer denied later Friday that the White House regretted repeating the allegation.

When accused Friday of spreading the baseless accusations, Trump shrugged off responsibility. "We said nothing. All we did was quote a very talented legal mind ... So you shouldn't be talking to me you should be talking to Fox." In response, Fox News' Shepard Smith said Friday: "Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano's commentary. Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-president of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way. Full stop."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.