begin quote from:
Wiretap saga comes to a head
Trump's wiretapping accusation comes to a head at Comey hearing
Story highlights
- Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump accused President Barack Obama of wiretapping him during the campaign
- Those claims will be a part of a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Monday
(CNN)The bizarre saga of President Donald Trump's claims that he was wiretapped by President Barack Obama last year reaches a dramatic climax Monday with FBI Director James Comey's testimony to the House Intelligence Committee.
It's
a moment of political theater that could end in humiliation for Trump,
with Comey expected to say that there was no wiretapping, debunking
allegations that Trump has repeatedly refused to withdraw.
The
hearing could also shed light on the state of FBI investigations into
the extent of Russian meddling in the election campaign. Republicans
hope Comey will state that there is no evidence of collusion between
Trump aides and officials from Moscow, a move that could begin to break
up a cloud of Russian intrigue that has stifled the early weeks of the
administration.
The controversy over the wiretapping claims was unleashed by stunning early morning tweets from the President at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida two weeks ago.
He drew parallels to Watergate and McCarthyism and said Obama was a
"Bad (or sick) guy!" for ordering surveillance of his New York residence
-- allegations the former president quickly denied through a spokesman.
In one sense, the strange
controversy over Trump's tweets has left the President in a position
where he is most comfortable politically — at odds with the media and
the political and intelligence establishment in Washington.
But it has also evolved into a political distraction at a time when Trump is facing fights over Obamacare repeal and
the budget that will help define his first 100 days in office. This
week, for example, the administration should benefit from favorable
coverage of the confirmation hearings of Trump's respected Supreme Court
pick Neil Gorsuch, but the Intelligence Committee hearing has the
capacity to overshadow the judge's testimony.
The man who could replace Justice Scalia 00:48
Comey's
appearance will highlight the strange, starring role of the FBI
director in an election that many Democrats believe was tilted toward
Trump by Comey's interventions related to Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. The FBI chief now finds himself presiding over a politically explosive investigation that
could include the behavior of aides to the sitting President amid
claims by Democrats of nefarious dealings between Trump's campaign inner
circle and Russian political and intelligence officials.
Trump's
failure to provide evidence for his wiretapping accusation --
effectively an allegation of criminal wrongdoing against the former
administration -- or to draw back the claims tied his White House in
knots as it sought to explain and finesse the tweets while sparing the
President embarrassment.
But the
effort stumbled as every key congressional figure associated with
intelligence oversight said there was no evidence of wiretapping. Comey
was "incredulous" about Trump's tweets, sources familiar with the matter
told CNN.
The administration's isolation was clear on the eve of the hearing Sunday.
Rep. Adam Schiff: 'No, wiretap is a wiretap" 03:49
"Was
there a physical wiretap of Trump Tower? No ... there never was,"
Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes told "Fox
News Sunday."
The top Democrat on
the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, added on NBC's "Meet the Press": "I
hope that we can put an end to this wild goose chase because what the
President said was just patently false."
Allegations makes waves among allies at home and abroad
Trump's tweets are not just causing a political kerfuffle; they've sparked international diplomatic fallout.
Trump, Merkel meet at White House 01:30
White
House efforts to support the claims ended up embroiling two key
European allies: Britain and Germany. Officials in London were livid
that White House spokesman Sean Spicer cited an unsubstantiated report
that Britain's Government Communications Headquarters -- the British
equivalent of the CIA -- had been used by Obama in the operation.
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose phone was once tapped by US
intelligence, did not take kindly to Trump's quip that they had
something in common Friday.
Also Friday, Trump's Justice Department sent classified information to Capitol Hill about the claims, but sources said it did not substantiate them.
The
apparent lack of evidence for Trump's claims is causing consternation
among the President's Republican allies and Democrats alike, and
speculation about how he will respond if Comey testifies that they are
baseless.
His unrepentant Friday
news conference suggests the President will simply quadruple down on his
claims, and ignore evidence against him. Such is the depth of feeling
in Trump world that he is the victim of a plot by the establishment and
the media to undermine his administration that he is unlikely to pay a
heavy price among his devoted supporters.
Trump on wiretapping: Talk to Fox News 00:45
But
the episode has again raised questions about whether Trump's penchant
for defying facts and evidence — that helped him in his campaign — could
exert a significant price on his presidency.
Some
observers believe Trump is eroding credibility that he will need to
rally Americans in a moment of national crisis. Trump's reliance on a
Fox News report for his claim on British involvement, and not the
testimony of his intelligence agencies, appears to indicate the most
powerful man in the world is operating in a realm of conspiracy theories
rather than facts.
"The wrecking
ball it created now has banged into our British allies and our German
allies, it's continuing to grow in terms of damage, and he needs to put
an end to this," Schiff said on NBC.
"Now
maybe this is the way he conducted his real estate business, with
half-truths and sometimes no-truths and a lot of bluster. That, in my
opinion, is no way to run a business. But it's an even worse way to run a
country."
Rep.: Trump comments should appall Americans 01:35
Republican Rep. Tom Cole told reporters Friday that Trump should say sorry to Obama if he couldn't support his claims.
"Frankly,
unless you can produce some pretty compelling proof, then I think that
President Obama is owed an apology in that regard."
"If he didn't do it, (Trump) shouldn't be reckless in accusations that he did."
Looking at links between Trump campaign and Moscow
Some
Democrats believe that Trump's perpetuation of the wiretapping claims
represents an effort to distract from allegations that his campaign had
inappropriate contacts with Russian officials.
"Really
what they are doing is they are rolling smoke bombs into an
investigation where the dots continue to connect around prior personal,
political and financial ties with Donald Trump and his team and Russia,"
said Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence
Committee, in an interview.
But the
White House is angry that statements by former senior intelligence
officials in the Obama administration — and by top congressional figures
-- that there is no evidence to substantiate the claims of alleged
collusion with Russia is not getting more coverage.
"I
think when it comes to the Russia story -- and the on-the-record
sources who have been briefed by the FBI continue to conclude that
there's nothing there -- you guys continue to fall back on these
anonymous sources and perpetuate a false narrative," Spicer vented to
reporters Thursday.
Other
Republicans believe that Comey's testimony Monday could begin to ease
the pressure on the White House over the Russia question.
Cotton: I haven't seen evidence of wiretapping 00:52
"I do think it's important that we look at the broader context here," Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
"The House committee hearing tomorrow is going to be in part about the
unsubstantiated allegations in the media and by some Democrats of
collusion between Trump associates and Russian intelligence."
Cotton
noted that former officials, including Obama's former director of
national intelligence, James Clapper, have said that there was no
evidence to substantiate such links.
"I
think, ultimately, that matters more to most Americans, given the
nature of the allegations that have been made in the past several months
about Donald Trump and his campaign and some of his associates," Cotton
said.
Still, the shifting explanations of meetings last year between Trump aides, among them Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and Russians, including Moscow's ambassador to the US, the fact that the first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had to resign after
not being forthright about such contacts, and the President's own
praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, have kept the speculation
alive.
Trump's refusal to release his tax returns has
meanwhile made it impossible for him to put speculation — which so far
lacks evidence — that he has been compromised by business links to
Russia.
CNN reported in February that there was constant contact between
Trump campaign aides and Russians known to US intelligence last summer,
citing multiple current and former intelligence, law enforcement and
administration officials.
The frequency and the level of those contacts raised alarms in US intelligence and law enforcement circles.
Democrats
say that pattern of behavior merits investigation — and could press
Comey on Monday to say what he can in an unclassified setting about
those contacts.
"At the outset of
the investigation, there was circumstantial evidence of collusion. There
was direct evidence, I think, of deception," Schiff said.
"And that's where we begin the investigation," he said. "Now I don't want to prejudge where we ultimately end up."
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