Washington: US President Donald Trump accused his predecessor Barack Obama of “tapping” his phone during the 2016 campaign for the White House. Mr Trump, however, did not provide any evidence to back up the claim, which he tweeted out on Saturday.
“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!” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.
“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 wrote in another tweet.
Mr Trump levelled the charges in a flurry of tweets shortly after dawn, amid an avalanche of recent revelations about communications between Russian officials and some of his senior aides, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Mr Trump has repeatedly denied having any personal ties to the Kremlin, and his aides have denied or played down contacts with Russian officials.
But, the accusations have continued amid almost daily leaks to the press that have revealed new details about links between Moscow and senior Trump officials.
One such revelation prompted Mr Sessions to recuse himself from any investigations into the Trump campaign’s possible Russia ties.
Mr Sessions had told a Senate committee under oath that he “did not have communications with the Russians,” but reporters found that he had actually met the Russian ambassador twice in the months before taking up his post as Attorney General, America’s top law enforcement officer.
Mr Trump has expressed his displeasure over the charges, and the barrage of leaks that led to them, lashing out in tweets on Friday directed at the top Democrats in the Republican-led Congress — Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi.
The businessman-turned-politician, who has accused his political foes of conducting “a total witch hunt”, on Saturday directed his Twitter tirade at his Democratic predecessor.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Mr Trump wrote a day after departing Washington for a weekend getaway at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort for the fourth time in five weeks.
