On the same day President Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wiretapping his campaign communications, FBI director James Comey asked the Justice Department to reject Trump’s allegation, according to the New York Times.
But so far, the Justice Department has not done so.
Comey told the Justice Department the charge against Obama is false and that it needs to be corrected. It’s unclear who at the Justice Department could set the record straight, considering Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from investigating anything having to do with Trump and Russia.
As the Times writes, “A statement by the Justice Department or Mr. Comey refuting Mr. Trump’s allegations would be a remarkable rebuke of a sitting president, putting the nation’s top law enforcement officials in the position of questioning the truthfulness of the government’s top leader.”
On Sunday, Trump, through White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, called for a congressional investigation into Obama, even though Trump hasn’t presented any evidence for his claims and even though it appears he might have received his intelligence from the far-right media. On Saturday, a spokesman for Obama said the former president had never ordered a wiretap on any U.S. citizen.
Comey has been under plenty of fire lately himself for his role in the presidential election. Last week, Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, accused Comey of withholding information from an investigation into Trump’s possible ties to Russia.
“In order for us to do our investigation in a thorough and credible way we’re going to need the FBI to fully cooperate,” Schiff said. “To be able to tell us the length and breadth of any counterintelligence investigations they’re conducting. At this point the director was not willing to do that.”
Click here to read the Times’ full report.
