FBI Director James Comey defends President Obama against Donald Trump’s false wiretap claim

| 2:23 pm EST March 5, 2017
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FBI Director James Comey, widely believed to have handed the election to Donald Trump by concealing the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation from the public while publicly misrepresenting the investigation into Hillary Clinton, is playing for the other team today. Trump made the bizarre false claim yesterday that President Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower during the election. But now Comey is defending Obama and confirming that this never happened.

Director Comey has asked the Department of Justice to publicly shoot down Donald Trump’s claim, asserting that it simply never happened. Why? Because if President Obama had ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower, it would have been carried out by the FBI. That would have been illegal on the FBI’s part, as the President has no power to order a wiretap on a U.S. citizen. So Comey is merely covering his own ass here, in a manner which happens to require defending Obama and rebuking Trump. But it’s still a stunning blow to Donald Trump, because he’s James Comey’s boss.

This means the current FBI Director is flat out publicly calling the current President of the United States a liar, which is the kind of thing that just doesn’t happen. The FBI answers to the Department of Justice, which is currently run by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was recently exposed as a conspirator in the Trump-Russia scandal. Sessions is embattled but still loyal to Trump, suggesting it may be difficult for Comey to convince the DOJ to join him in rebuking Trump. But the damage has been done.

Remarkably, James Comey’s request to the DOJ has leaked to the New York Times after the DOJ took no immediate action on the request. That suggests Comey himself leaked the request in order to make sure Trump’s false claim was publicly shot down as swiftly as possible. If so, Trump has lost control of the Executive Branch. Contribute to Palmer Report