Washington: The White House asked the US Congress on Sunday to examine whether the Obama administration abused its investigative authority during the 2016 campaign, as part of an ongoing congressional probe into Russia’s influence on the election.
The request came a day after President Donald Trump alleged, without supporting evidence, that then-President Obama ordered a wiretap of the phones at Mr Trump’s campaign headquarters in Trump Tower in New York.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Mr Trump and administration officials would have no further comment on the issue until Congress has completed its probe, potentially heading off attempts to get Mr Trump to explain his accusations.
“Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling,” Mr Spicer said in a statement.
“President Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016,” he said.
Mr Trump made the wiretapping accusation in a series of early morning tweets on Saturday amid expanding scrutiny of his campaign’s ties to Russia. An Obama spokesman denied the charge, saying it was “a cardinal rule” that no White House official interfered with independent Justice Department investigations.
The White House offered no evidence on Sunday to back up Mr Trump’s accusation and did not say it was true. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, appearing on ABC’s This Week, said Mr Trump has “made very clear what he believes, and he’s asking that we get down to the bottom of this. Let’s get the truth here.”
Two former senior US officials have dismissed Mr Trump’s accusations as “just nonsense” and “just wrong”, with one telling CNN “This did not happen”.
