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Trump tweeted this:

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

At time of writing, this statement has been retweeted more than 48,000 times. The Washington Post wrote a story about it concluding that Trump has cited "no evidence."

Was Trump Tower wiretapped by the Obama administration?

Oddthinking
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Kevin
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    If there is "no evidence" to support it then what do you think is the answer? – DJClayworth Sep 05 '17 at 01:20
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    A couple of days ago the Justice Dept said there is no evidence. What makes you think anyone here can provide additional evidence? – hdhondt Sep 05 '17 at 02:06
  • Note the history of this question. It was originally asked before the Justice Department's response. Also: Is the Justice Department the right authority? (Genuine question from ignorance.) – Oddthinking Sep 05 '17 at 02:27
  • @oddthinking The justice department controls whether charges will be pressed on behalf of society. A statement of "no evidence" from them means "nothing to press charges". –  Sep 05 '17 at 02:39
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    Between the fact that Trump never offered any evidence, and the DOJ and FBI have said that there were not wiretaps, I think it's safe to say that Obama did not tap any wires. And, btw, who even taps wires anymore, and, if it were true, it is not McCarthyism. – rougon Sep 05 '17 at 02:55
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    @rougon: Great. Please make an answer with references to support your calls, not a pseudo-answer comment. I think it is clear that the "wires tapped" is an idiom referring to having a third party secretly listen to telephone calls (or perhaps even a hidden microphone). – Oddthinking Sep 05 '17 at 06:11
  • @fredsbend: What about the House Intelligence Committee? [example](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/05/politics/white-house-spicer-congress-2016/index.html) – Oddthinking Sep 05 '17 at 06:12
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    @odd It can get complicated when a member of Congress is accused. Everyone wants to be involved. The HIC is made up of representatives that oversee quite a few government bodies, including the Department of Justice. –  Sep 05 '17 at 15:24
  • So many jokes available based on the multiple meanings for "bug." – PoloHoleSet Sep 05 '17 at 16:41

1 Answers1

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The DOJ says that there is no factual basis for this claim:

"Both FBI and NSD confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets," the government said, referring to the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

The DOJ document can be seen here.

Regarding the house intelligence committee mentioned in the comments, it doesn't seem that they are taking the allegations seriously either. Schiff called them "destructive" and "baseless", Himes called them a "mess", Rubio said that he doesn't know what Trump is talking about, Collins said she sees "no evidence" and that the commitee needs to deal with "evidence", and Burr said that they would be "guided by the intelligence and facts". Nunes seems to be the only one who wanted to make inquiries, but those did not turn anything up:

"We don't have any evidence that took place," Nunes said. "I don't think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower."

tim
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    My answer focuses on the claim as-is. Some, including Nunes, [later](https://apnews.com/8f45d6141e4e4cce86024af85841a9f7) stated that a very broad interpretation of the claim might turn out to be somewhat true, which it [didn't](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/11/politics/intelligence-contradicts-nunes-unmasking-claims/) really. But as that is a very different claim, it would probably warrant a separate question. If anyone is interested, the [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Tower_wiretapping_allegations) article provides a good overview from which a question might be formulated. – tim Sep 05 '17 at 11:12
  • It's probably worth noting that there was a pretty credible speculation that the information that prompted that tweet was obtained by "tapping" the communications of the Russian embassy, officials, and other suspected operatives. – ventsyv Sep 05 '17 at 14:30
  • @ventsyv where was that speculation? I hadn't heard that but it sounds interesting. – rougon Sep 06 '17 at 04:06
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    @rougon I'm calling it a speculation because I can't quite remember where I heard it. I'm pretty sure someone testified to that effect during a congressional hearing but I might've had heard it on CNN ... – ventsyv Sep 06 '17 at 16:37
  • In September 2017, it was reported that Manafort was wiretapped. I won't add it to my answer (yet), as we don't know when, where, or which communication was intercepted, and if this has any relations to the claims in this question (which are about Trump, not Manafort). As CNN notes [Donald Trump still has no evidence that his wiretapping claim was right](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/19/politics/trump-wiretapping-manafort/index.html). I still wanted to mention it in case anyone is wondering why it's missing here. – tim Sep 20 '17 at 08:02
  • @tim but the question is about trump tower. maybe the question should be re written as "did Obama personally install a wiretap and listen to Trump talking on the telephone" – daniel Sep 20 '17 at 09:53
  • @daniel It's about Trumps wires (that's the "my" part, which he later also specified as "my phone") in Trump tower. But even if you re-interpret the claim, we don't even know if Manafort was tapped in Trump tower or not, or if his communication with Trump was intercepted or not (as stated in the original CNN report breaking the Manafort news, as well as the follow-up I linked to above). We do know that there is (as of yet) no evidence that Trump was the subject of any wiretaps. – tim Sep 20 '17 at 10:13
  • @tim "Did Obama's administration bug Trump Tower?" Its about Trumps tower, the question is specifically about the tower, Trumps quote can be interpreted that way too. – daniel Sep 20 '17 at 11:18
  • @daniel I don't think it's a reasonable interpretation. If I say "X tapped my wires", it means they made me the subject of an investigation and are tapping my wires. It doesn't mean they are tapping the wires of someone I know, or wires I own but do not use. Words matter, and you can't just say something but mean something different, that's not how it works. But it doesn't matter, as the recent news concerning Manafort **doesn't** confirm either version (the stated one, or your interpretation). If or when that changes, I would certainly add it to my answer (with the correct context). – tim Sep 20 '17 at 11:50
  • @tim your answer addresses the surveillance of trump tower, "obama-trump-tower-wiretap-no-evidence-242284" "I don't think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower." "DOJ Motion for Summary Judgment in Trump Tower Wiretap Lawsuit" – daniel Sep 20 '17 at 12:02
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/65893/discussion-between-tim-and-daniel). – tim Sep 20 '17 at 12:13
  • This is such a bad answer - your authoritative answer is based on the quote on Nunes who should absolutely know if it happened or not. Yet in the quote he worded himself exactly how someone would if they were guilty and didn't want to expose themselves to risk in the future. "I don't think" come on man. It is either we did or we didn't, not I don't think. – blankip Mar 12 '21 at 20:32
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    @blankip Nunes wasn't the one accused of wiretapping. He was the one spreading baseless conspiracy theories of wiretapping & pushing for investigations. As those didn't turn up anything, he had to admit that he was wrong. So he expresses himself like someone who doesn't want to come right out and say "I was wrong", and instead went with "we don't have any evidence" and a somewhat weak "I don't think". But the authoritative part of my answer is the DOJ, FBI, and NSD. The rest is just to show that even those pushing the theory had to admit that the facts don't support it. – tim Mar 12 '21 at 20:44