NYT: Comey Asks Justice Dept. to Reject Trump’s Wiretapping Claim

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Comey Asks Justice Dept. to Reject Trump’s Wiretapping Claim
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and MICHAEL D. SHEARMARCH 5, 2017

06trump-sub-master768.jpg

President Trump boarded Air Force One on Sunday en route to Washington from a weekend visit to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones, senior American officials said on Sunday. Mr. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement.

Mr. Comey, who made the request on Saturday after Mr. Trump leveled his allegation on Twitter, has been working to get the Justice Department to knock down the claim because it falsely insinuates that the F.B.I. broke the law, the officials said.

A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment. Sarah Isgur Flores, the spokeswoman for the Justice Department, also declined to comment.

Mr. Comey’s request is a remarkable rebuke of a sitting president, putting the nation’s top law enforcement official in the position of questioning Mr. Trump’s truthfulness. The confrontation between the two is the most serious consequence of Mr. Trump’s weekend Twitter outburst, and it underscores the dangers of what the president and his aides have unleashed by accusing the former president of a conspiracy to undermine Mr. Trump’s young administration.

The White House showed no indication that it would back down from Mr. Trump’s claims. On Sunday, the president demanded a congressional inquiry into whether Mr. Obama had abused the power of federal law enforcement agencies before the 2016 presidential election. In a statement from his spokesman, Mr. Trump called “reports” about the wiretapping “very troubling” and said Congress should examine them as part of its investigations into Russia’s meddling in the election.

In addition to being concerned about potential attacks on the bureau’s credibility, senior F.B.I. officials are said to be worried that the notion of a court-approved wiretap will raise the public’s expectations that the federal authorities have significant evidence implicating the Trump campaign in colluding with Russia’s efforts to disrupt the presidential election.

Mr. Comey has not been dealing directly with Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the matter, as Mr. Sessions announced on Thursday that he would recuse himself from any investigation of Russia’s efforts to influence the election. It had been revealed on Wednesday that Mr. Sessions had misled Congress about his meetings with the Russian ambassador during the campaign.

Mr. Comey’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering is certain to invite contrasts to his actions last year, when he spoke publicly about the Hillary Clinton email case and disregarded Justice Department entreaties not to.

It is not clear why Mr. Comey did not issue a statement himself. He is the most senior law enforcement official who was kept on the job as the Obama administration gave way to the Trump administration. And while the Justice Department applies for intelligence-gathering warrants, the F.B.I. keeps its own records and is in a position to know whether Mr. Trump’s claims are true. While intelligence officials do not normally discuss the existence or nonexistence of surveillance warrants, no law prevents Mr. Comey from issuing the statement.

In his demand for a congressional inquiry, the president, through his press secretary, Sean Spicer, issued a statement on Sunday that said, “President Donald J. 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.”

Mr. Spicer, who repeated the entire statement in a series of Twitter posts, added that “neither the White House nor the president will comment further until such oversight is conducted.”

A spokesman for Mr. Obama and his former aides have called the accusation by Mr. Trump completely false, saying that Mr. Obama never ordered any wiretapping of a United States citizen.

“A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” Kevin Lewis, Mr. Obama’s spokesman, said in a statement on Saturday.

Mr. Trump’s demand for a congressional investigation appears to be based, at least in part, on unproven claims by Breitbart News and conservative talk radio hosts that secret warrants were issued authorizing the tapping of the phones of Mr. Trump and his aides at Trump Tower in New York.

In a series of Twitter posts on Saturday, the president seemed to be convinced that those claims were true. In one post, Mr. Trump said, “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!”

On Sunday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary, said the president was determined to find out what had really happened, calling it potentially the “greatest abuse of power” that the country had seen.

“Look, I think he’s going off of information that he’s seen that has led him to believe that this is a very real potential,” Ms. Sanders said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And if it is, this is the greatest overreach and the greatest abuse of power that I think we have ever seen and a huge attack on democracy itself. And the American people have a right to know if this took place.”

The claims about wiretapping appear similar in some ways to the unfounded voter fraud charges that Mr. Trump made during his first days in the Oval Office. Just after Inauguration Day, he reiterated in a series of Twitter posts his belief that millions of voters had cast ballots illegally — claims that also appeared to be based on conspiracy theories from right-wing websites.

As with his demand for a wiretapping inquiry, Mr. Trump called for a “major investigation” into voter fraud, saying on Twitter that “depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!” No investigation has been started.

Senior law enforcement and intelligence officials who worked in the Obama administration have said that there were no secret intelligence warrants regarding Mr. Trump. Asked whether such a warrant existed, James R. Clapper Jr., a former director of national intelligence, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “Not to my knowledge, no.”

“There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign,” Mr. Clapper added.

Mr. Trump’s demands for a congressional investigation were initially met with skepticism by lawmakers, including Republicans. Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said he was “not sure what it is that he is talking about.”

“I’m not sure what the genesis of that statement was,” Mr. Rubio said.

Pressed to elaborate on “Meet the Press,” Mr. Rubio said, “I’m not going to be a part of a witch hunt, but I’m also not going to be a part of a cover-up.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/05/...ations-that-obama-tapped-his-phones.html?_r=0
 
Comey Asks Justice Dept. to Reject Trump’s Wiretapping Claim
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and MICHAEL D. SHEARMARCH 5, 2017

06trump-sub-master768.jpg

President Trump boarded Air Force One on Sunday en route to Washington from a weekend visit to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones, senior American officials said on Sunday. Mr. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement.

Mr. Comey, who made the request on Saturday after Mr. Trump leveled his allegation on Twitter, has been working to get the Justice Department to knock down the claim because it falsely insinuates that the F.B.I. broke the law, the officials said.

A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment. Sarah Isgur Flores, the spokeswoman for the Justice Department, also declined to comment.

Mr. Comey’s request is a remarkable rebuke of a sitting president, putting the nation’s top law enforcement official in the position of questioning Mr. Trump’s truthfulness. The confrontation between the two is the most serious consequence of Mr. Trump’s weekend Twitter outburst, and it underscores the dangers of what the president and his aides have unleashed by accusing the former president of a conspiracy to undermine Mr. Trump’s young administration.

The White House showed no indication that it would back down from Mr. Trump’s claims. On Sunday, the president demanded a congressional inquiry into whether Mr. Obama had abused the power of federal law enforcement agencies before the 2016 presidential election. In a statement from his spokesman, Mr. Trump called “reports” about the wiretapping “very troubling” and said Congress should examine them as part of its investigations into Russia’s meddling in the election.

In addition to being concerned about potential attacks on the bureau’s credibility, senior F.B.I. officials are said to be worried that the notion of a court-approved wiretap will raise the public’s expectations that the federal authorities have significant evidence implicating the Trump campaign in colluding with Russia’s efforts to disrupt the presidential election.

Mr. Comey has not been dealing directly with Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the matter, as Mr. Sessions announced on Thursday that he would recuse himself from any investigation of Russia’s efforts to influence the election. It had been revealed on Wednesday that Mr. Sessions had misled Congress about his meetings with the Russian ambassador during the campaign.

Mr. Comey’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering is certain to invite contrasts to his actions last year, when he spoke publicly about the Hillary Clinton email case and disregarded Justice Department entreaties not to.

It is not clear why Mr. Comey did not issue a statement himself. He is the most senior law enforcement official who was kept on the job as the Obama administration gave way to the Trump administration. And while the Justice Department applies for intelligence-gathering warrants, the F.B.I. keeps its own records and is in a position to know whether Mr. Trump’s claims are true. While intelligence officials do not normally discuss the existence or nonexistence of surveillance warrants, no law prevents Mr. Comey from issuing the statement.

In his demand for a congressional inquiry, the president, through his press secretary, Sean Spicer, issued a statement on Sunday that said, “President Donald J. 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.”

Mr. Spicer, who repeated the entire statement in a series of Twitter posts, added that “neither the White House nor the president will comment further until such oversight is conducted.”

A spokesman for Mr. Obama and his former aides have called the accusation by Mr. Trump completely false, saying that Mr. Obama never ordered any wiretapping of a United States citizen.

“A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” Kevin Lewis, Mr. Obama’s spokesman, said in a statement on Saturday.

Mr. Trump’s demand for a congressional investigation appears to be based, at least in part, on unproven claims by Breitbart News and conservative talk radio hosts that secret warrants were issued authorizing the tapping of the phones of Mr. Trump and his aides at Trump Tower in New York.

In a series of Twitter posts on Saturday, the president seemed to be convinced that those claims were true. In one post, Mr. Trump said, “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!”

On Sunday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary, said the president was determined to find out what had really happened, calling it potentially the “greatest abuse of power” that the country had seen.

“Look, I think he’s going off of information that he’s seen that has led him to believe that this is a very real potential,” Ms. Sanders said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And if it is, this is the greatest overreach and the greatest abuse of power that I think we have ever seen and a huge attack on democracy itself. And the American people have a right to know if this took place.”

The claims about wiretapping appear similar in some ways to the unfounded voter fraud charges that Mr. Trump made during his first days in the Oval Office. Just after Inauguration Day, he reiterated in a series of Twitter posts his belief that millions of voters had cast ballots illegally — claims that also appeared to be based on conspiracy theories from right-wing websites.

As with his demand for a wiretapping inquiry, Mr. Trump called for a “major investigation” into voter fraud, saying on Twitter that “depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!” No investigation has been started.

Senior law enforcement and intelligence officials who worked in the Obama administration have said that there were no secret intelligence warrants regarding Mr. Trump. Asked whether such a warrant existed, James R. Clapper Jr., a former director of national intelligence, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “Not to my knowledge, no.”

“There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign,” Mr. Clapper added.

Mr. Trump’s demands for a congressional investigation were initially met with skepticism by lawmakers, including Republicans. Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said he was “not sure what it is that he is talking about.”

“I’m not sure what the genesis of that statement was,” Mr. Rubio said.

Pressed to elaborate on “Meet the Press,” Mr. Rubio said, “I’m not going to be a part of a witch hunt, but I’m also not going to be a part of a cover-up.”

是FBI管司法部,司法部管白宫吗?
美国的权力结构到底是怎么样的?
 
是FBI管司法部,司法部管白宫吗?
美国的权力结构到底是怎么样的?

英语那个词, ask,你认识么?
 
英语那个词, ask,你认识么?


Ask: 请求,要求,询问。

后面他们还用了 refute.
 
upload_2017-3-5_21-43-57.png


Just when U.S. allies around the world from Canada to Europe to Asia were starting to be reassured about Donald Trump’s approach to the world, there’s a whole new gust of chaos coming from Washington.

This weekend’s startling political drama of Twitter accusations of wiretaps, then denials, all following on swirling questions about the contacts between Trump associates and Russia, are setting off fireworks inside domestic U.S. politics. But don’t doubt that the events that Republican Senator Ben Sasse labelled a “civilization-warping crisis of public trust” will shake capitals around the world.

Mr. Trump’s accusation that former president Barack Obama ordered wiretaps of his phones in Trump Tower, levelled with no evidence cited, left only bad scenarios possible, as another Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, suggested Saturday: Either the former president used U.S. intelligence for illegal political surveillance, or investigators had enough probable cause of collusion between Mr. Trump’s team in Russia to get a warrant.

There’s a third bad scenario, of course, one that seems more likely after former director of national intelligence James Clapper denied wiretapping of Trump Tower on Sunday – that President Trump casually made unsubstantiated accusations so reckless they shake faith in the fundaments of U.S. government.

That is now piled onto questions about contacts between Trump associates and Russia, which, according to the U.S. intelligence, tried to interfere in the presidential election. Those questions that have grown not because of the contacts themselves but because senior Trump officials, notably U.S. Attorney-General Jeff Sessions and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, made misleading statements about them.

Now, no matter who you think is telling the truth in this Washington spy drama, it’s hard to argue with Mr. Clapper’s comment on Meet the Press on Sunday: “Certainly the Russians have to be chortling at their efforts to sow dissension in this country.”

That’s a real fear for Mr. Trump’s presidency – that even if he’s not actually some kind of Manchurian candidate carrying out Russian President Vladimir Putin’s commands, he is doing things that will fulfill Mr. Putin’s desire for a weaker West. It’s not just dissension within the United States. Its allies, allies like Canada, should fear the uncertainty over U.S. leadership on the world stage.

Oddly, it comes just when allies’ worries were starting to be calmed.

Some had been concerned about Mr. Trump’s warm words for Mr. Putin, but there had been far more worry that Mr. Trump had expressed disdain for key geopolitical structures of the West. He had questioned the value of alliances like NATO and even seemed to be cheering for the breakup of the European Union. That would have made Mr. Putin smile. But allies have since been reassured that the Trump administration’s approach is within traditional bounds.

In February, Vice-President Mike Pence went to Munich to tell Europeans the U.S. commitment to NATO is “unwavering.” Washington assuaged fears the United States might pull out of plans to send four “reassurance” battalions, including one led by Canada, to nervous East European nations on Russia’s borders. Defence Secretary James Mattis travelled to tell Japan the United States. will defend its ally. Mr. Trump’s speech to Congress last week echoed such soothing notes.

Canadian officials who met with U.S. counterparts in Washington were calmed by the approach of senior officials like Mr. Mattis, a former Marine general who publicly praised the contribution of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, who appeared to be steering a level-headed global security policy that values allies and stability.

But there are still doubts for allies. Mr. Trump’s warm words for Mr. Putin, or qualms about NATO, might have been just a tactical opening, encouraged by a few players like Mr. Flynn who are being superseded by reliable cabinet figures like Mr. Matttis. But it’s not clear whose policies stick. What if Mr. Trump tweets again? It seems his cabinet put out the fires the president lights.

In Washington, the intelligence agencies at the core of a Western security-intelligence alliance that includes allies like Britain and Canada are now at the centre of a storm. Mr. Trump initially attacked them when they reported Russia interfered in the election, then there were leaks of Mr. Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador.

Allies were just starting to be soothed by promises that the United States isn’t planning to ditch them. Now there’s a spy psychodrama in Washington that will make them wonder about U.S. leadership. Yes, Mr. Putin must be chortling.
 
川普这么闹难道是他的军师班脓下的一盘大棋么?
 
报道:FBI局长否认川普所说奥巴马窃听他
最后更新: 2017年3月6日
  • 美国之音
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川普总统在就职典礼上讲话后,手指奥巴马前总统(2017年1月20日)

美国新闻媒体报道,美国联邦调查局局长科米将要求司法部公开反驳川普总统所指控的前总统奥巴马窃听他在纽约川普大楼的电话之事。

纽约时报和NBC新闻表示,科米认为,川普的说法不实,而且暗示联邦调查局参与了非法窃听。

联邦调查局和司法部还没有发表评论。

新闻媒体机构Newsmax Media的创建者克里斯托弗· 拉迪是川普的朋友,他在星期日写道,川普告诉他:“将会调查这件事,查个水落石出。事实将证明我是对的。”

拉迪还说,他在很长时间里都没见过川普如此愤怒。

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联邦调查局的J·埃德加·胡佛总部大楼(资料照)

美国总统川普星期天要求国会情报监督部门调查前总统奥巴马行政当局在去年11月总统选举之前是否曾滥用调查权力,并把这一调查做为对俄罗斯介入美国选举调查的一部分。

在这之前,川普星期六指责奥巴马在选举前一个月里窃听他在纽约川普大楼里的竞选总部的电话,但川普没有提供证据。奥巴马的助手反驳川普,称他的这些话虚假不实。

美国前情报总监詹姆斯·克拉珀在星期日NBC的《会见新闻界》节目里说,当时没有窃听当选总统川普或者候选人川普,没有反对他的竞选。

克拉珀还表示,在选举之前和之后,都没有法庭命令允许窃听川普。

但是白宫发言人斯派塞说,“有消息说,在2016年大选之前进行的调查可能出于政治动机,这非常令人不安。”

美国两党都有议员抨击川普的窃听之说,质问他有何证据。

参议院少数党领袖舒默说:“总统有麻烦了。如果他散布这种假信息,就很不对。这有损总统的尊严……显示这位总统不知道如何规范自己的举止。”

参议院情报委员会成员、维吉尼亚州选出来的参议员马克·沃纳在CBS的《面对国家》节目里说:“提出这种说法而没有任何证据,我认为很鲁莽。”

在去年的共和党总统候选人提名之战里败给川普的参议员鲁比奥在星期日NBC的《会见新闻界》节目里说,总统必须回答他所说的电话被窃听到底是指什么。

共和党众议员德文·努涅斯说,他担任主席的众议院情报委员会将考虑把川普的指控作为调查俄罗斯干涉选举工作的一部分。

川普星期天一大早便在他位于佛罗里达州的别墅发推文,攻击反对党民主党和奥巴马。他在推文中问道“民主党全国委员会是否没有准许联邦调查局(FBI)来检查他们的服务器或其他设备是否遭到黑客攻击?这是真的吗?有这个可能吗?”

美国情报部门针对有关俄罗斯干预选举的结论是,俄罗斯干预选举的目的是帮助川普击败民主党竞争对手、前美国国务卿希拉里·克林顿。

川普在1月就职之前勉强接受了情报部门的调查结果。不过,美国联邦调查局和国会几个委员会现在也正在对有关俄罗斯干预选举的问题进行调查,重点是投票前后川普助手和俄罗斯官员的多次接触。
 
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