title: PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Terrible. Just Found Out That Obama Had My ‘Wires Tapped’ In Trump Tower Just Before The Victory…This Is McCarthyism!”
text: President Trump on Saturday claimed President Obama had his  wires tapped  in Trump Tower before Election Day, tweeting the accusation without offering evidence. Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my  wires tapped  in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!  he wrote. Is it legal for a sitting President to be  wire tapping  a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!  he added in subsequent tweets.  I d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!    The HillTerrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017Drawing on sources including the New York Times and the Washington Post, Levin described the case against Obama so far, based on what is already publicly known. The expanded version of the case can be found here.Here is an important portion of that case: October: FISA request. The Obama administration submits a new, narrow request to the FISA court, now focused on a computer server in Trump Tower suspected of links to Russian banks. No evidence is found   but the wiretaps continue, ostensibly for national security reasons, Andrew McCarthy at National Review later notes. The Obama administration is now monitoring an opposing presidential campaign using the high-tech surveillance powers of the federal intelligence services.January 2017: Buzzfeed/CNN dossier. Buzzfeed releases, and CNN reports, a supposed intelligence  dossier  compiled by a foreign former spy. It purports to show continuous contact between Russia and the Trump campaign, and says that the Russians have compromising information about Trump. None of the allegations can be verified and some are proven false. Several media outlets claim that they had been aware of the dossier for months and that it had been circulating in Washington.January: Obama expands NSA sharing. As Michael Walsh later notes, and as the New York Times reports, the outgoing Obama administration  expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections.  The new powers, and reduced protections, could make it easier for intelligence on private citizens to be circulated improperly or leaked.January: Times report. The New York Times reports, on the eve of Inauguration Day, that several agencies   the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Treasury Department are monitoring several associates of the Trump campaign suspected of Russian ties. Other news outlets also report the exisentence of  a multiagency working group to coordinate investigations across the government,  though it is unclear how they found out, since the investigations would have been secret and involved classified information.February: Mike Flynn scandal. Reports emerge that the FBI intercepted a conversation in 2016 between future National Security Adviser Michael Flynn   then a private citizen   and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The intercept supposedly was part of routine spying on the ambassador, not monitoring of the Trump campaign. The FBI transcripts reportedly show the two discussing Obama s newly-imposed sanctions on Russia, though Flynn earlier denied discussing them. Sally Yates, whom Trump would later fire as acting Attorney General for insubordination, is involved in the investigation. In the end, Flynn resigns over having misled Vice President Mike Pence (perhaps inadvertently) about the content of the conversation.February: Times claims extensive Russian contacts. The New York Times cites  four current and former American officials  in reporting that the Trump campaign had  repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials. The Trump campaign denies the claims   and the Times admits that there is  no evidence  of coordination between the campaign and the Russians. The White House and some congressional Republicans begin to raise questions about illegal intelligence leaks.March: the Washington Post targets Jeff Sessions. The Washington Post reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had contact twice with the Russian ambassador during the campaign   once at a Heritage Foundation event and once at a meeting in Sessions s Senate office. The Post suggests that the two meetings contradict Sessions s testimony at his confirmation hearings that he had no contacts with the Russians, though in context (not presented by the Post) it was clear he meant in his capacity as a campaign surrogate, and that he was responding to claims in the  dossier  of ongoing contacts. The New York Times, in covering the story, adds that the Obama White House  rushed to preserve  intelligence related to alleged Russian links with the Trump campaign. By  preserve  it really means  disseminate : officials spread evidence throughout other government agencies  to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators  and perhaps the media as well.In summary: the Obama administration sought, and eventually obtained, authorization to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign; continued monitoring the Trump team even when no evidence of wrongdoing was found; then relaxed the NSA rules to allow evidence to be shared widely within the government, virtually ensuring that the information, including the conversations of private citizens, would be leaked to the media.Levin called the effort a  silent coup  by the Obama administration and demanded that it be investigated.In addition, Levin castigated Republicans in Congress for focusing their attention on Trump and Attorney General Sessions rather than Obama.  Breitbart NewsPresident Trump also used Twitter to build his case against the Democrats and how they are attempting to unfairly trash the reputation of Jeff Sessions,  an honest man :Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not .  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017 intentional. This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed ..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017 to win. The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election, and now they have lost their grip on reality. The real story  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017 is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total "witch hunt!"  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017He followed up his tweets about the Sessions witch-hunt with a tweet about the first meeting in question that Jeff Sessions had with the Russian Ambassador just before the election was actually arranged by the Obama administration under education programs for 100 Ambassadors. This new news of course, leave the Democrats looking a little foolish over their rush to crucify Sessions for meeting with the Russian Ambassador that they arranged:The first meeting Jeff Sessions had with the Russian Amb was set up by the Obama Administration under education program for 100 Ambs  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017