The White House on Sunday called on Congress to investigate the Obama administration’s involvement in the 2016 election, a day after President Trump accused his predecessor of politically motivated wiretapping.
“Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling,” said the White House in a brief statement.
“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,” the statement said.
In a Saturday tweet, Mr. Trump said: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ’wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Sunday called the president’s allegation “ridiculous” and accused him of “deflection.”
“I can tell you that it’s just ridiculous for President Trump to say that President Obama would ever order any wiretap of an American citizen, any president,” Ms. Pelosi said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “That’s just — we don’t do that.”
The White House statement concluded, “Neither the White House nor the president will comment further until such oversight is conducted.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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