President Donald Trump’s most recent early morning Twitter rampage is yet another bizarre rant with absolutely no substance or new information. In it, Trump blasts former president Barack Obama for setting up a wiretap on Trump Tower prior to the election. As has already been mentioned several times, Obama could not have possibly done this under his executive power, and Trump was most likely just echoing a Breitbart article with no new information in it. One member of the House of Representatives, Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), hopes that Trump Tower was actually wiretapped, as that could mean only one thing:
Mr. President: If there was a wiretap at Trump Tower, that means a fed judge found probable cause of crime which means you are in deep shit. https://t.co/i7dUMtHXmo
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 4, 2017
The point Lieu wants to make is that Obama (or any president, for that matter) cannot wiretap private citizens for no reason. If the Department of Justice suggests it, the allegation will be brought before a federal judge along with evidence, and they will make the decision on whether a wiretap is in the interest of national security. Lieu continued:
If wiretap was on Trump Tower, that means fed judge found probable cause phone lines used by agents of foreign power https://t.co/1f1366A3jI
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 4, 2017
Either @realDonaldTrump is paranoid like Nixon, or judge found probable cause of crime for #wiretap. Either way our President is in trouble.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 4, 2017
It seems likely that Lieu hopes it is not merely Nixon-esque paranoia. It appears that Lieu actually hopes Trump is correct; legally, he knows that if the Justice Department requested the wiretap and it actually happened, then that means a judge found probable cause that Donald Trump’s team was illegally colluding with a foreign power, most likely the Russians. And, considering what we have found out about Michael Flynn and Jeff Sessions, it does not seem as if that “probable cause” would take much of a leap to believe.
Trump making an outrageous accusation with zero evidence to substantiate it? It sounds far-fetched, but it seems possible that this is another attempt on Trump’s part to distract from the real issue at hand: just how far do his team’s ties to Russia go? Or, as Representative Lieu might wonder: how deep of shit are you in?
Featured image from Evan Guest via Flickr / CC BY 2.0
