FBI Director James Comey has asked the Justice Department to publicly refute US President Donald Trump’s explosive, unsubstantiated accusation that former president, Barack Obama, tapped his phone during last year’s election campaign, US media reported on Sunday.
Comey’s extraordinary measure questioning the president’s truthfulness provides an indication of the implications of Trump’s incendiary claim about his predecessor. The department has not made any statement, AFP reported.
Trump’s aides were scrambling on Sunday to limit the political fallout of Trump’s accusation 24 hours after it was made, admitting it was still unproven and calling on Congress to investigate.
Citing still undefined “reports” of “politically motivated investigations”, press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump was calling on Congress to “determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016”.
Trump Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders echoed those comments.
“If this happened,” she told ABC, “this would be the greatest abuse of power and overreach that has ever occurred in the executive branch.”
Trump, who has returned to Washington from a weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, has not publicly commented further on his allegations.
On Saturday, he tweeted: “How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” He provided no evidence to back up the claim.
