On March 4, 2017,

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

wrote a series of posts on his Twitter account that falsely accused former President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's administration of

wiretapping Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...

his "wires" at

Trump Tower Trump Tower is a 58-story, mixed-use condominium skyscraper at 721–725 Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, between East 56th and 57th Streets. The building contains the headquarters for the Trump Organiza ...

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 ''Breitbart News Network'' (; known commonly as ''Breitbart News'', ''Breitbart'', or ''Breitbart.com'') is an Radical right (United States), American far-rightMultiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * syndicated news, opinion, and commentar ...

'' article he had been given which repeated speculations made by

conspiracy theorist A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

Louise Mensch Louise Daphne Mensch (''née'' Bagshawe; born 28 June 1971) is a British blogger, novelist, and former Conservative Member of Parliament. In the 1990s she became known as a writer of chick lit novels under her maiden name Louise Bagshawe. She ...

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 A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

(DOJ). Representative

Devin Nunes Devin Gerald Nunes (; born October 1, 1973) is an American businessman and politician who serves as the Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board since January 20, 2025, and as chief executive officer of the Trump Media & Technolog ...

, the then-chair of the

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

, said he would investigate the claim. At a committee open hearing on March 20, 2017,

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

Director

James Comey James Brien Comey Jr. (; born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer who was the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until Dismissal of James Comey, his termination in May 2017. Comey was a registered Repub ...

stated that neither the FBI nor the

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 Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

reported that the FBI wiretapped

Paul Manafort Paul John Manafort Jr. (; born April 1, 1949) is an American former lobbyist, political consultant, and attorney. A long-time Republican Party campaign consultant, he chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016. Manafo ...

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 Flynn is an Irish surname or first name, an anglicised form of the Irish Ó Floinn or possibly Mac Floinn, meaning "descendant or son of Flann" (a byname meaning "reddish (complexion)" or "ruddy"). The name is more commonly used as a surname t ...

." 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,

reported in the right-leaning '' Heat Street'', that the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI) had twice sought

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA, , ) is a Law of the United States, United States federal law that establishes procedures for the surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence on domestic soil.

links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies Since Donald Trump was a 2016 candidate for the office of President of the United States, multiple suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials were discovered by the Crossfire Hurricane (FBI investigation), FBI, a Mueller ...

. 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 n Trump Towerand 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 ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 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". The article stated that "American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted ussiancommunications 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

." The article also noted the uncertainty regarding the scope of the communications, stating: "It is not clear whether the intercepted ussiancommunications had anything to do with Mr. Trump's campaign, or Mr. Trump himself." On March 3, ''

'', a

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

* * * * * * website known to publish

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

, * * * * * * * ran an article by

Joel Pollak Joel Barry Pollak (born 25 April 1977) is a South African-born American conservative political commentator, writer, radio host, and attorney. He currently serves as the senior editor-at-large for ''Breitbart News''. He attended Harvard College ...

headlined "

Mark Levin Mark Reed Levin (; born September 21, 1957) is an American broadcast news analyst, columnist, lawyer, political commentator, radio personality, and writer. He is the host of syndicated radio show '' The Mark Levin Show'', as well as '' Life, ...

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 ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is Rich L ...

'' 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 Lititz is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, north of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Lancaster. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 9,370. History Lititz was ...

, as Trump outsourced e-mail to Listrak, which operates out of a

data center A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. Since IT operations are crucial for busines ...

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 Circa is a Latin word meaning "around, approximately". Circa or CIRCA may also refer to: * CIRCA (art platform), in London * Circa (band), a progressive rock supergroup * Circa (company), an American skateboard footwear company * Circa (contempora ...

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

In a succession of tweets on March 4, 2017, Trump stated he had "just found out" that former president

had wiretapped his phones at

"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 McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...

and

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation in 1974, in August of that year. It revol ...

. Anonymous White House officials told ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' 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: * An article from the BBC, titled "Trump 'compromising' claims: How and why did we get here?" * An article from Heat Street, titled "EXCLUSIVE: FBI 'Granted FISA Warrant' Covering Trump Camp's Ties To Russia" * An article from National Review, titled "FISA and the Trump Team" * A transcript of Bret Baier interviewing Paul Ryan on Fox the previous night, and * An article from The New York Times, titled "Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides" 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 Sarah Elizabeth Huckabee Sanders ( Huckabee; born August 13, 1982) is an American politician serving as the 47th governor of Arkansas since 2023. Sanders is the daughter of Mike Huckabee, who served from 1996 to 2007 as Arkansas's 44th governor ...

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 Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...

'' 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 The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

's ''

Fox & Friends ''Fox & Friends'' is an American daily morning conservative news and talk program that airs on Fox News and reruns on Fox.Thompson, Ethan, and Jason Mittell. "Fox & Friends: Political Talk." ''How to Watch Television.'' 168-76. Print. It premie ...

'' 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 ''Inspector Gadget'' is a media franchise that began in 1983 with the DIC Entertainment animated television series '' Inspector Gadget''. Since the original series, there have been many spin-offs based on the show, including additional animated ...

, I don't believe that people are using the microwave to spy on the Trump campaign." She faced similar questioning on ''

'' and ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'' 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 Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

was responsible for the surveillance, not Obama himself, said Trump's tweet which specifically named the former president. Trump spoke on his own behalf regarding the tweets for the first time in a March 15 interview with

Tucker Carlson Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American conservative political commentator who hosted the nightly political talk show '' Tucker Carlson Tonight'' on Fox News from 2016 to 2023. Since his contract with Fox News was term ...

on Fox News. He cited the March 3 interview with

Paul Ryan Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is an American politician who served as the List of Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. A member of the ...

on an episode of ''

Special Report with Bret Baier '' Special Report with Bret Baier'' (formerly ''Special Report with Brit Hume'') is an American television news and political commentary program, hosted by Bret Baier since 2009, that airs on Fox News Channel. It is broadcast live each Monday t ...

'' on Fox News and the January 19 ''The New York Times'' article as the origin of his allegations. The White House press briefing on March 16 became very contentious when Spicer was confronted by the press corps with the bipartisan doubts of congressional leaders about Trump's wiretap claims. The back-and-forth between Spicer and reporters lasted almost ten minutes and was marked by Spicer repeating news reports about possible

GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom. Primar ...

involvement in spying on Trump, further inflaming the media firestorm. In an April 2 interview with the UK-based ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'', Trump expressed very little regret for his tweets, saying "I don't regret anything, because there is nothing you can do about it. You know if you issue hundreds of tweets, and every once in a while you have a clinker, that's not so bad. Now my last tweet, you know the one that you are talking about perhaps, was the one about being in quotes wire tapped, meaning surveilled. Guess what, it is turning out to be true." This was echoed in a much later 2019 interview with C-SPAN, when asked whether he regretted any of his tweets, Trump said "Not much, honestly not much...I sent the one about the wiretapping...and that turned out to be true." On April 25, 2019, when calling in to Sean Hannity's Fox news show, Trump said that his original allegation of "wires tapped" was not literal as he had used quotation marks, saying 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". Trump elaborated that he thought his allegations were "pretty insignificant" when he made them.

Allegation of British involvement

In the summer of 2016, long before the first public statement from the Obama Administration on October 7, 2016, about Russian interference, "

Robert Hannigan Robert Peter Hannigan CMG (born 1965) is a cybersecurity specialist who has been Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, since 2021. He was a senior British civil servant who previously served as the director of the signals intelligence and crypto ...

, then the head of the U.K.'s intelligence service the G.C.H.Q., had recently flown to Washington and briefed the C.I.A.'s director, John Brennan, on a stream of illicit communications between Trump's team and Moscow that had been intercepted. (The content of these intercepts has not become public.)" "The matter was deemed so sensitive it was handled at 'director level'." This information became public on April 13, 2017, when ''The Guardian'' reported that GCHQ and other European and Australian intelligence agencies had intercepted secret communications and surveilled meetings between members of the Trump campaign team and Russian spies, and shared this intelligence with their U.S. counterparts. The communications were obtained through "incidental collection" as part of routine surveillance of Russian intelligence assets, not from a targeted operation against Trump or his campaign. Before ''The Guardians report, during a March 14, 2017, ''Fox & Friends'' interview, Andrew Napolitano said that "Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command", using the British

Government Communications Headquarters Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom. Primari ...

(GCHQ) to implement surveillance to avoid leaving "American fingerprints". Napolitano accused

, who resigned from the GCHQ on January 23, of ordering the wiretap. Hannigan reportedly resigned for personal reasons. Fox News anchor Bret Baier later stated that "the Fox News division was never able to back up apolitano'sclaims". Napolitano was reportedly temporarily taken off air by Fox due to the allegations. One of Napolitano's sources was former intelligence officer Larry C. Johnson, who later told

that Napolitano had misrepresented the statements he made on an online discussion board. Johnson, citing two anonymous sources, claimed that the GCHQ was passing information on the Trump campaign to US intelligence through a "back-channel", but stressed that the GCHQ did not "wiretap" Trump or his associates and that alleged information sharing by the GCHQ was not done at the direction of the Obama administration. On March 16, Spicer repeated Napolitano's claim at a White House press briefing. The following day, GCHQ responded with a rare public statement: "Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct 'wiretapping' against the then president-elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored." A British government source said the allegation was "totally untrue and quite frankly absurd". Admiral Michael S. Rogers, director of the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(NSA), said he has seen nothing to suggest that there was "any such activity" nor any request to do so. Former GCHQ director

David Omand Sir David Bruce Omand (born 15 April 1947) is a British former senior civil servant who served as the Director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) from 1996 to 1997. Background Omand was born on 15 April 1947. His father, B ...

told ''

'' that "The suggestion that arack Obamaasked GCHQ to spy on Trump is just completely barking — that would be evident to anyone who knew the system." The claim started a diplomatic dispute with Britain.

Tim Farron Timothy James Farron (born 27 May 1970) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2017. He has been the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmorland and Lonsdale since ...

, the Liberal Democrat leader in Britain, said "Trump is compromising the vital UK-US security relationship to try to cover his own embarrassment. This harms our and US security." ''The Telegraph'' said that two U.S. officials had personally apologized for the allegation. The British government also said that the U.S. government promised not to repeat these claims. The White House denied reports that it had apologized to the British government, saying Spicer was merely "pointing to public reports" without endorsing them.

Surveillance of Trump associates

Reports

On January 11, 2017, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' reported that the FBI initially applied for a FISA warrant in June 2016, requesting to "monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials". This initial request was denied. A source told ''The Guardian'' that the FBI then submitted a more narrowly focused request in October, "but that has not been confirmed, and it is not clear whether any warrant led to a full investigation". ''The Guardian'' article was not cited by the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

in connection with Trump's wiretapping claim. The day after ''The Guardian'' report, ''

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

'' journalist Paul Wood separately reported that, in response to an April 2016 tip from a foreign intelligence agency to the CIA about "money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign", a joint task force had been established including representatives of the FBI, the Department of the Treasury, the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

(DOJ), the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

(CIA), the

Office of the Director of National Intelligence The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a cabinet-level United States government intelligence and security official. The position is required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head o ...

(ODNI) and the NSA; and in June 2016 lawyers from the FBI had applied to the FISA court for "permission to intercept the electronic records from two Russian banks". The BBC alleged that the investigation was prompted in April 2016 by a "tip" from an intelligence agency of one of the

Baltic States The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

. According to Wood, this application was rejected, as was a more narrowly focused request in July, and the order was finally granted by a different FISA judge on October 15, three weeks before the presidential election. According to the article, the warrant did not name Trump or his associates. On January 18, ''McClatchy'' separately reported that "the FBI had obtained a warrant on Oct. 15 from the highly secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court allowing investigators access to bank records and other documents about potential payments and money transfers related to Russia". The ''McClatchy'' article was not cited by the

in connection with Trump's wiretapping claim. In April 2017, ''The Washington Post'' initially reported that the FBI secured a FISA warrant to monitor Trump campaign associate Carter Page in the summer of 2016 — later corrected to October 2016, one month after Page had left the Trump campaign. The warrant was reportedly based on the possibility that Page was acting as an agent of a foreign government, i.e., Russia. On September 18, 2017,

reported that the FBI wiretapped

, Trump's former campaign chairman, from as early as 2014 through an unspecified time before the 2016 election, and also after the election through early 2017, pursuant to two separate FISA court orders. It has not been confirmed whether Trump's conversations with Manafort were intercepted as part of this surveillance. CNN acknowledged that prior to this disclosure, "speculation has run rampant about whether Manafort or others associated with Trump were under surveillance". The CNN report noted that it was unclear if Manafort was under FBI surveillance while he resided in Trump Tower. In December 2019, CNN added an editor's note to the article, stating: "On December 9, 2019, the Justice Department Inspector General released a report regarding the opening of the investigation on Russian election interference and Donald Trump's campaign. In the report, the IG contradicts what CNN was told in 2017, noting that the FBI team overseeing the investigation did not seek FISA surveillance of Paul Manafort." On May 16, 2018, The New York Times reported that "The F.B.I. investigated four unidentified Trump campaign aides in those early months... ncluding..Michael T. Flynn, Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Mr. Papadopoulos."

Analysis

In its March 5 analysis of the reporting that preceded Trump's allegations, ''

'' stated that "the articles all suggest that the FISA requests—if they happened—were done by the intelligence agencies and the FBI", and not by the Obama administration. According to ''The Post'', Mensch's article was the only one to have alleged any surveillance of Trump Tower. No major news organizations have been able to confirm Mensch's account, despite prolonged efforts by ''The New York Times'' and ''The Washington Post''. This absence of verification, combined with Mensch's reliance on "vague" and anonymous sourcing to individuals "with links to the counter-intelligence community", lead ''The Times'' and ''The Post'' to urge skepticism about the veracity of her account. David A. Graham of ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'' responded to claims that the Manafort wiretap report vindicated Trump's March 2017 tweets: "This is not true—Trump claimed he had been the subject of Obama-ordered, politically motivated surveillance, for which there remains no evidence." While acknowledging that "it does make for a more complicated picture than previously known", Graham argued "there are reasons to doubt" that Trump was even aware of the Manafort wiretap at the time he made his unsupported allegations against Obama. Graham concluded: "Insofar as there are parallels between what Pollak, Levin, and Napolitano said and the new story, it looks like luck." Aaron Blake of ''The Washington Post'' noted that, according to CNN, lawyers for both Trump and Manafort convinced the two men to discontinue their phone conversations some time after Trump took office: "If Trump's lawyers somehow knew about and fought back against the Manafort wiretap, it stands to reason that Trump himself might have been aware of it. ... While we don't know the exact timing of all of this, perhaps this is what Trump was referring to and he, as he is wont to do, exaggerated it." ''

'' media critic

Erik Wemple Erik Wemple is an American journalist who works as a columnist and media critic at ''The Washington Post''. He was formerly the editor of the alternative weekly ''Washington City Paper''. Since 2017, Wemple has been known for feuding with former ...

criticized CNN for not retracting its Manafort wiretap report in December 2019, while also noting a subdued response from right-leaning critics of the network: "A mightier uproar likely would have resulted if CNN's story had attacked a common Trump talking point. Instead, it supported the president's claims that the federal government had spied on his campaign. Keep this case in mind the next time someone says that errors in the mainstream media go only against Trump." There has been criticism of Trump's claim as simply being a " dead cat", a false allegation against Obama intended to direct media and public interest away from Trump and his team's alleged connections with Russia.

Reactions

From politicians

Most Republicans in Congress distanced themselves from the claim and refused to comment on it, although members of both the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

vowed to investigate the matter. Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis repudiated the claim in a statement later that day saying: "A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice." ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' described Obama as "livid" when he heard about the allegations personally, though other sources said he "rolled his eyes" and remained more concerned about Trump's conservative and nationalist agenda. Republican Senator

Rand Paul Randal Howard Paul (born January 7, 1963) is an American politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States senator from Kentucky since 2011. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

pointed out that a backdoor intercept of Trump's communications was possible. Elizabeth Goitein, a surveillance law expert at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, pointed out that backdoor searches of incidental records collected on Americans overseas were allowed by U.S. law. Republican Representative Frank LoBiondo, a senior member on the House Intelligence Committee, speculated on March 20, after Comey's testimony to the committee, that it was possible there was incidental collection that occurred due to targeting Russian communications, but expressed doubt that there was any evidence that there was such a wiretap. Incidental collection—also called backdoor collection by politicians such as Democratic Senator

Ron Wyden Ronald Lee Wyden ( ; born May 3, 1949) is an American politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Oregon, a seat he has held since 1996 United States Senate special el ...

—has been publicly acknowledged by the intelligence community for years. Democratic Representative Ted Lieu compared Trump to

Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 36th vice president under P ...

: "Either @realDonaldTrump is

paranoid Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety, suspicion, or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of con ...

like Nixon, or judge found

probable cause In United States criminal law, probable cause is the legal standard by which police authorities have reason to obtain a warrant for the arrest of a suspected criminal and for a court's issuing of a search warrant. One definition of the standar ...

of crime for #wiretap. Either way our President is in trouble." German Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

reacted to Trump's claims with a wince in March 2017. The topic came up during a joint question and answer session with the media during Merkel's visit to the White House. Trump tried to crack a joke, saying "at least we have something in common, perhaps," referring to the fact that the

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

had at one point spied on Merkel's cell phone. Merkel did not comment in response but her reaction was circulated widely on social media. A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin distanced the Kremlin from Trump's claim when asked about it.

From the media

Speaking to NBC's ''Meet the Press'', former Director of National Intelligence

James Clapper James Robert Clapper Jr. (born March 14, 1941) is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Air Force and former Director of National Intelligence. Clapper has held several key positions within the United States Intelligence Community. ...

said "For the part of the national security apparatus that I oversaw as DNI there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the President-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign." When the Obama administration's former press secretary Josh Earnest was asked by

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

's Martha Raddatz if he could deny that the Obama Justice Department had sought and obtained a FISA court-ordered wiretap of the Trump campaign, he responded, "I don't know ... The president was not giving marching orders to the FBI about how to conduct their investigations."

Official government investigations

Following the tweets, the White House issued a statement asking for congress to exercise their oversight authority to investigate the wiretapping allegations. Both the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee already had ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump's tweets added fuel to the fire of those investigations, so they accepted the request. The

House Judiciary Committee The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, f ...

and the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally known as the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the United States Departm ...

also jumped at the opportunity to investigate, Chairman Graham saying "if there is a investigation at the FBI of Trump, Russia campaign activities, I want to know about it. I'm tired of reading about it in the paper." All four congressional committees requested relevant documentation from the Department of Justice. The House Intelligence committee set a deadline of March 13 for responsive documentation as well as an open hearing on March 20 to review. As an initial response, the FBI briefed the Gang of Eight on March 9, giving them insight into Crossfire Hurricane, including the existence of a FISA warrant on Carter Page but requested more time to produce actual documentation for the intelligence committees to review. On March 15,

and

Adam Schiff Adam Bennett Schiff (born June 22, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from California, a seat he has held since 2024. A m ...

, both members of the Gang of Eight, told reporters that they had not found any evidence supporting the wiretapping claim. On March 16, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a joint statement echoing that sentiment, saying "based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element to the United States government either before or after Election Day." At the March 20 House Intelligence hearing, Comey made a statement refuting Trump's claims regarding wiretapping while also confirming the existence of a probe into coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. Comey had asked the Justice Department to publish a statement refuting the wiretapping claims immediately following the tweets on March 4, but they did not do so before his statement. On March 23, Nunes stated that communications to and from Trump's presidential transition team may have been intercepted as part of incidental collection. In response, officials in the Obama administration refuted any claims that it had been monitoring the Trump team. Nunes said the surveillance was unrelated to the Russia investigation and "suggested the contents may have been inappropriately disseminated in intelligence reports ... for political reasons". * See also Later the same day, Nunes said that he did not know "for sure" whether intelligence committees had actually monitored the Trump team's communications. In September, former National Security Advisor

Susan Rice Susan Elizabeth Rice (born November 17, 1964) is an American diplomat, policy advisor, and public official. As a member of the Democratic Party, Rice served as the 22nd director of the United States Domestic Policy Council from 2021 to 2023, a ...

stated that a December 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump transition officials and

Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (born 11 March 1961), also known as MbZ, is an Emirati royal and politician who is serving as the third and current president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi since 2022. Mohamed completed his edu ...

of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

(UAE) raised suspicions because the UAE allegedly failed to give the Obama administration advance notice of Zayed's visit to the U.S., as is customary. Therefore, to better understand the intent of the meeting, she "requested the names of the Americans mentioned in the classified report be revealed internally" (or " unmasked"). According to

's Manu Raju, while Nunes implied that such unmasking may have been improper—an allegation that the Trump administration used to deflect from Trump's original wiretap claim—Rice's "explanation appears to have satisfied some influential Republicans on the committee, undercutting both Nunes and Trump". Republican Representative Mike Conaway affirmed: "She was a good witness, answered all our questions. I'm not aware of any reason to bring her back." In May 2020, attorney general Bill Barr appointed federal prosecutor John Bash to examine unmasking conducted by the Obama administration. The inquiry concluded in October with no findings of substantive wrongdoing. Liberal watchdog group American Oversight filed a FOIA request on March 20, 2017, demanding records that supported or disproved Trump's wiretap tweets. They initially received a

Glomar response Glomar may refer to: * Global Marine, a drilling contractor which merged with Santa Fe International Corporation to form GlobalSantaFe Corporation. Now part of Transocean. * '' Glomar Challenger'', the drillship used for the Deep Sea Drilling Proj ...

, saying the Department of Justice and the FBI "could not confirm or deny the existence" of any records that are responsive to American Oversight's FOIA request, citing the potential exposure of classified information. The group sued to force a clearer answer and narrowed their request. On September 1, 2017, they received a DOJ court filing stating that "both the FBI and NSD confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets." A December 9, 2019, report by the DOJ's Inspector General stated that "we are aware of no information indicating that the Crossfire Hurricane team requested or seriously considered FISA surveillance of Manafort or

In popular culture

Trump's wiretap claim dominated TV news coverage in March 2017 for several weeks, overshadowing every other discussion about Trump's policy agenda. Late night talk show hosts Trevor Noah, James Corden and Stephen Colbert all made fun of President Trump for his wiretap accusations. Colbert mocked Kellyanne Conway's reference to microwave cameras the following week. Celebrities Alec Baldwin, Don Cheadle, Sarah Silverman, Sophia Bush and J.K. Rowling publicly reacted to Trump's claims, while actor

Mark Hamill Mark Richard Hamill (; born September 25, 1951) is an American actor. He is best known for starring as Luke Skywalker in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, and the Joker (character), Joker in various animated DC Comics projects, starting with ''Batm ...

read the tweets as Joker, the fictional supervillain, and author

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

jokingly turned them into a short story. The "wiretap" tweets are included on multiple lists of Trump's most controversial tweets. In 2020, commentator Eli Lake called it the "most consequential tweet of his presidency". According to an April 2019 Politico/Morning Consult poll, 38% of American voters believed Donald Trump's presidential campaign was spied on during the 2016 election, with 57% agreement by Republicans and 24% by Democrats.

Notes

References

{{Donald Trump 2017 controversies in the United States 2017 in American politics Allegations Conspiracy theories regarding Barack Obama Donald Trump and social media March 2017 in the United States Telephone tapping First Trump administration controversies Twitter controversies United Kingdom–United States relations Conspiracy theories promoted by Donald Trump