The White House says it wants the congressional committees that are investigating Russian interference in last year’s U.S. presidential election to also examine whether “executive branch investigative powers” were abused in 2016.
The request, made Sunday, is in reference to a claim put forward by President Donald Trump on Saturday that involved wiretapping by the Obama administration.
But FBI director James Comey has asked the Justice Department to publicly reject Trump’s allegations, saying the claim is false and must be corrected, the New York Times reported. The Justice Department hasn’t issued a statement yet.
There was no proof offered by Trump, and the claims were vehemently denied by officials and Obama’s director of national intelligence.
James Clapper,who left his job when Trump took office Jan. 20, said no such action was carried out against the New York businessman as a candidate or against his campaign.
“Absolutely, I can deny it,” Clapper said Sunday.
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Congress hasn’t seen evidence supporting Trump’s claims he was phone tapped by Obama -
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Clapper denies Obama ordered wiretap on Trump -
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WH Spokesperson calls for congressional investigation into Trump’s Obama wiretap claims -
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Pelosi calls Trump ‘Deflector in Chief’ after Obama wiretap accusation -
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Spicer says there is a ‘concern’ about wiretapping during 2016 election -
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White House says it has no further comments on wiretapping allegations
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Sunday refused to say where Trump got his information, saying his tweets speak for themselves.
She told ABC’s This Week: “If they’re going to investigate Russia ties, let’s include this as part of it. That’s what we’re asking.”
Members of Congress said Trump’s accusations require investigation or explanation.
Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican, described the allegations as serious and said the public deserved more information. He said in a statement it was possible that Trump had been illegally tapped, but, if so, the president should explain what sort of tap it was and how he knew about it.
U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called Trump’s assertion a “spectacularly reckless allegation.”
“If there is something bad or sick going on, it is the willingness of the nation’s chief executive to make the most outlandish and destructive claims without providing a scintilla of evidence to support them,” Schiff said in a statement.
House Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi called the accusation a smear and told CNN’s State of the Union that “we don’t do that.”
More angry tweets from the president
In another tweet on Sunday morning, Trump again went after Obama asking: “Who was it that secretly said to Russian President, ‘Tell Vladimir that after the election I’ll have more flexibility?’”
The quote refers to a microphone slip in 2012, where the former president was heard saying the phrase to Dmitry Medvedev, who was president of Russia at the time. The comment was made during a meeting in South Korea, during Obama’s re-election year.
It’s the second day in a row Trump has linked Obama with Russian officials. On Saturday Trump said Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak met the former president 22 times, and set up the initial meeting between Kislyak and Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions.
READ MORE: Who in Trump’s inner circle doesn’t have ties to Russia?
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Trump stands by attorney general in storm over Russia contacts -
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Trump’s Attorney General met with Russia and didn’t disclose it: reports -
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No evidence of contact between Trump campaign, Russia: House Intelligence Committee -
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Donald Trump on Russia: from the campaign to now -
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Trump says no one on his campaign had any contact with Russia during the election -
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Trump’s ‘Russian problem’ grows as more private meetings with U.S. officials revealed
The tweets come amid a cloud of controversy surrounding Sessions, who recused himself from the investigation into Russian involvement in Trump’s campaign because of two undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador.
Other Trump advisors have also been accused of meeting with Kislyak secretly, including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump’s former national security advisor Michael Flynn was fired after not properly disclosing the topic of his conversations with Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence earlier this year.
While Democrats and Republicans alike condemned Sessions’ decision to not disclose the meetings, politicians noted that it was normal to meet with foreign officials.
In another Sunday tweet, Trump offered another statement questioning the access the FBI had to the Democratic National Committee’s servers when investigating how the emails were hacked.
“Is it true the DNC would not allow the FBI access to check server or other equipment after learning it was hacked? Can that be possible?” he wrote, but there was no evidence to back up this claim.
The DNC’s email leak has been tied to Russian hacking, and U.S. intelligence officials say it was part of the Russian government’s efforts to discredit the U.S. election process and assist Trump‘s campaign.
The Kremlin has denied the allegations.
While again, Trump offered no direct evidence, there was a report from Buzzfeed in January that said FBI officials only accessed the DNC servers after determining the hack originated in Russia. DNC officials told Buzzfeed the FBI hadn’t asked for access, while the FBI told Wired magazine that it “repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the necessity of obtaining direct access to servers and data, only to be rebuffed” until after Russia was implicated in the hack.
With files from the Associated Press
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