2017 US political controversy
On March 4, 2017, Donald Trump wrote a series of posts on his Twitter account that falsely accused former President Barack Obama's administration of wiretapping his "wires" at Trump Tower late in the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump called for a congressional investigation into the matter, and the Trump administration cited news reports to defend these accusations. His initial claims appeared to have been based on a "Breitbart News" article he had been given which repeated speculations made by conspiracy theorist Louise Mensch or on a Bret Baier interview, both of which occurred the day prior to his Tweets. By June 2020, no evidence had surfaced to support Trump's claim, which had been refuted by the Justice Department (DOJ).
Representative Devin Nunes, the then-chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said he would investigate the claim. At a committee open hearing on March 20, 2017, FBI Director James Comey stated that neither the FBI nor the Justice Department possessed any information to support Donald Trump's wiretapping allegations. Nunes stated on March 23 that the Trump administration's communications might have been legally monitored during the transition period as part of an "incidental collection". Intelligence Committee leaders later said they found no evidence to support the claim.
The DOJ declared in a September 1, 2017, court filing that "both the FBI and NSD confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets", and confirmed this in another court filing of October 19, 2018. On September 19, 2017 CNN reported that the FBI wiretapped Paul Manafort before and after the presidential election, extending into early 2017, although the report did not make clear whether Manafort was monitored during his tenure with the Trump campaign from March through August 2016. The CNN report also stated that the Manafort surveillance began after he became the subject of an FBI investigation in 2014. Some commentators cited this report as vindication for Trump's claims, while others noted that it did not confirm the accuracy of Trump's original tweets, and that it is still unknown whether any surveillance of Manafort took place at Trump Tower. Manafort owned a condominium in Trump Tower from 2006 until its seizure by federal authorities following his 2018 convictions. Furthermore, the 2017 CNN report cited as partial vindication for Trump was refuted by a 2019 investigation by the DOJ's Inspector General, which stated: "We are aware of no information indicating that the Crossfire Hurricane team requested or seriously considered FISA surveillance of Manafort or Flynn." ;ref name="OIG_12/9/2019" ; ;/ref ;
In a 2019 call in to Sean Hannity's show, Trump said that his original allegation of "wires tapped" was not literal, and that he really meant: "surveillance, spying you can sort of say whatever you want". Trump also said that his allegations were made "just on a little bit of a hunch and a little bit of wisdom maybe", and that he thought his allegations were "pretty insignificant" when he made them.
Origin.
On November 7, 2016, conspiracy theorist Louise Mensch reported in the right-leaning "Heat Street", that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had twice sought Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants in connection with its investigation of the myriad ;ref name="Savage_Goldman_5/17/2023" ; ;/ref ; links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies. According to Mensch, the first request for a warrant which "named Trump" was denied in June 2016 and, a second, more "narrowly drawn" request was granted in October 2016. Mensch wrote that this warrant gave "counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of 'U.S. persons' in Donald Trump's campaign with ties to Russia", and to "look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons". Mensch further claimed that the October warrant was granted in "connection with the investigation of suspected activity between the server [in Trump Tower] and two banks, SVB Bank and Alfa Bank", and that "it is thought in the intelligence community that the warrant covers any 'US person' connected to this investigation, and thus covers Donald Trump and at least three further men". She said her story was based on two anonymous "sources with links to the counter-intelligence community". Mensch's original article only discussed e-mail exchanges and did not use the term "wiretap".
On January 19, 2017, "The New York Times" published an article which used two headlines, with the print headline reading "Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides" and the article published online with the title "Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates". ;ref name="McCarthy_3/9/2017" ; ;/ref ; The article stated that "American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted [Russian] communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort." The article also noted the uncertainty regarding the scope of the communications, stating: "It is not clear whether the intercepted [Russian] communications had anything to do with Mr. Trump's campaign, or Mr. Trump himself."
On March 3, "Breitbart News", a far-right website known to publish conspiracy theories, ran an article by Joel Pollak headlined "Mark Levin to Congress: Investigate Obama's 'Silent Coup' vs. Trump." On the previous day, right-wing radio personality Mark Levin alleged that Obama and his allies were conducting a "silent coup" against Trump, and asked: "How many phone calls of Donald Trump, if any, have been intercepted by the administration and recorded by the Obama administration?" The claims were labeled conspiracy theories by CNN and "The Los Angeles Times". The "Breitbart" article alleged that "the Obama administration is now monitoring an opposing presidential campaign using the high-tech surveillance powers of the federal intelligence services". Citing Mensch's November article, "Breitbart" claimed the existence of a June FISA request "to monitor communications involving Donald Trump and several advisers", and of an October FISA warrant "focused on a computer server in Trump Tower". Breitbart cited a January 11 "National Review" article, which speculated about alleged "wiretaps" of the Trump campaign and their legal ramifications. Like the "Breitbart" article, the "National Review" article had also extensively relied on Mensch's piece.
Like Mensch, "McClatchy", BBC, and "The Guardian" reported on the existence of an October FISA warrant. However, these accounts differed substantially from Mensch's story with respect to the scope and purpose of the warrant. They alleged that the October warrant authorized to monitor financial transactions related to Russia — not communications. Unlike the derivative accounts in "National Review" and "Breitbart", Mensch's original article did not use the term "wiretap" (implying voice telephone calls), but only made claims about e-mail exchanged with SVB Bank and the Russian Alfa-Bank. While Mensch did claim the e-mail server was located in Trump Tower, it was likely located in Lititz, Pennsylvania, as Trump outsourced e-mail to Listrak, which operates out of a data center there. Furthermore, "The New York Times" reported on October 31 that the FBI had concluded that the server traffic could have been explained by marketing emails or spam. Contrary to "The Times", Mensch claimed that the server's activity remained suspicious enough to lead the FBI to request the FISA warrant.
On the March 3 "Special Report" program, host Brett Baier cited an article from the now-defunct Circa online newspaper, mentioning the same allegations as Mensch, "McClatchy", BBC, and "The Guardian", and asked Ryan: "Have you heard that?" Ryan responded: "Well, again, like I said, none of us in Congress or anybody I know in Congress has been presented with anything to the contrary of what you just said." However, there may have been a misunderstanding between Baier and Ryan throughout the interview, with Baier asking about undue surveillance of the Trump campaign, and Ryan responding that intelligence gathering had produced no evidence of collusion between Russia and Trump. Ryan stated, in response to a question about Trump's March 15 comments, that he had been unaware of any wiretapping allegations prior to his interview with Baier, and that "the intelligence committees ... have determined ... that no such wiretap existed."
The "Breitbart" article was circulated among White House staffers, and was reportedly given to Trump along with his morning newspapers and printouts. It was also reported that Trump watched the Bret Baier interview immediately before his tweets.
Accusation.
Initial claim.
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Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
 
 March 4, 2017
In a succession of tweets on March 4, 2017, Trump stated he had "just found out" that former president Barack Obama had wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower "just before the victory". He did not say where he had obtained the information and offered no evidence to support it. Trump compared the alleged intrusion to McCarthyism and Watergate. Anonymous White House officials told "The Washington Post" that Trump did not appear to coordinate his comments with other White House officials.
Followup.
Fact-checkers immediately requested supporting information for these claims from the White House communications team. In response to the requests from "The Washington Post", "Politifact" and "FactCheck.org", the White House provided five items:
None of these articles corroborated the specific allegations made in the tweets, but rather contained terms and elements of stories which were mingled together and distorted. All of the listed fact-checkers rated Trump's claims as false.
In the first official statement issued after the tweets, made through press secretary Sean Spicer on March 5, Trump asked congressional intelligence committees to "determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016" as part of their oversight authority of the Department of Justice and as part of the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the election. In response, multiple congressional committees agreed to investigate. None found any evidence supporting the wiretapping claim, and they reported their findings in the weeks following the tweets.
In interviews on March 5 and 6, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders attempted to recast the president's words with a softer tone. On "This Week" she said "I think there certainly could have been (a FISA warrant). And it sounds like there's something that we should look into and verify." On Monday morning's "Today" show, she said "the president firmly believes that the Obama administration may have tapped into the phones at Trump Tower, this is something that we should look into. We'd like to know for sure."
Later on March 6, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox News's "Fox &amp; Friends" that the president had "information and intelligence that the rest of us do not", although when asked about this, Press Secretary Spicer equivocated. Spicer spoke to reporters that day from the White House briefing room with an audio-only feed for the public, and was peppered with questions about the tweets. Spicer referred to his weekend statement requesting congressional investigation and did not to add clarity or context to Trump's tweets. Referring to Conway's claim, Spicer said "I can't specifically respond to you in terms of what she was referring to, whether she was referring to the exact nature of this charge or whether generally speaking he is given information."
Trump lowered his profile in the week following the tweets, limiting reporter access in contrast to the first six weeks of his administration.
Extension of claim.
During an interview on March 12, 2017, Kellyanne Conway was asked by "The Record"'s Mike Kelly, "do you know whether Trump Tower was wiretapped?" She answered "what I can say is there are many ways to surveil each other. You can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets — any number of different ways, microwaves that turn into cameras." However, Conway's comments resulted in a headline which read "Kellyanne Conway Alludes to Even Wider Surveillance of Trump Campaign" which directly led to question from CNN's New Day anchor Chris Cuomo. On that show, she attempted to walk back her microwave quip, stating that "I'm not Inspector Gadget, I don't believe that people are using the microwave to spy on the Trump campaign." She faced similar questioning on "Today" and "Good Morning America" but ended her media tour roundly mocked as "the microwave lady".
At a March 13 press briefing, Spicer claimed that Trump was referring to general surveillance rather than direct wiretapping. Spicer also said that the White House believed that the Obama administration was responsible for the surveillance, not