Mr. Obama issued a statement saying that neither he “nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U. S. citizen.” James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, denied on Sunday
that the government had wiretapped Trump Tower before the election, and said he had no knowledge of any effort to do so before Mr. Obama left office.
President Trump had no evidence on Saturday morning when he smeared his predecessor, President Barack Obama, accusing him of ordering
that Trump Tower phones be tapped during the 2016 campaign.
On Sunday Sean Spicer, his press secretary, issued a statement demanding
that congressional intelligence committees, led by Republicans friendly toward Mr. Trump, “determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.” Representative Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a member of Mr. Trump’s transition team, quickly made clear he intended to do the president’s bidding.
In four tweets, capped by one about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “pathetic” ratings on Celebrity Apprentice, Mr. Trump declared as fact a theory he apparently
encountered on alt-right websites: “How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process.
When One President Smears Another -
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDMARCH 5, 2017
Let’s begin with what the public can know for certain.