WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Saturday accused his predecessor Barack Obama of “tapping” his phone during last year’s White House campaign, without providing evidence of the explosive charge.
“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!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“How low has President Obama gone to tapp (sic) my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” he wrote in another tweet.
Trump leveled the charges in a flurry of tweets shortly after dawn, amid an avalanche of recent revelations about communications between Russian officials and some of his senior aides, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Trump repeatedly has denied having any personal ties to the Kremlin, and his aides have denied or played down contacts with Russian officials.
But the accusations have continued amid almost daily leaks to the press that have revealed new details about links between Moscow and senior Trump officials.
One such revelation earlier this week in the Washington Post about a meeting between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak prompted the Republican former US senator to recuse himself from any investigations into the Trump campaign’s possible Russia ties.
Sessions had told a Senate committee under oath that he “did not have communications with the Russians,” but reporters found that he had actually met the Russian ambassador twice in the months before taking up his post as attorney general, America’s top law enforcement officer.
Trump has expressed his displeasure over the charges — and the barrage of leaks that led to them — lashing out in tweets Friday directed at the top Democrats in the Republican-led Congress — Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi.
The businessman-turned-politician, who has accused his political foes of conducting “a total witch hunt” on Saturday directed his Twitter tirade at his Democratic predecessor.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump wrote a day after departing Washington for a weekend getaway at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort for the fourth time in five weeks.
Since US intelligence took the unprecedented step of publicly accusing Russia of trying to swing the November election in Trump’s favor, questions have swirled about whether some in Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow.
But it has now emerged that a slew of associates aside from Sessions and already fired national security adviser Michael Flynn met Kislyak before Trump took office.
The meetings have raised red flags for Democrats, who have called for Sessions to resign and be investigated for perjury.
Trump accuses Obama of ‘tapping’ his phone during campaign
Trump accuses Obama of ‘tapping’ his phone during campaign
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France, Algeria to resume security cooperation: minister
- Algeria plays a key role in the latter, sharing borders with junta-led Niger and Mali, both gripped by terrorist violence
ALGIERS: France and Algeria agreed on Tuesday to restart security cooperation during a visit to Algiers by French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, marking the first sign of a thaw in diplomatic ties.
After meeting with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Nunez said both sides had agreed to “reactivate a high-level security cooperation mechanism.”
The visit took place against a backdrop of thorny relations between France and its former colony, frayed since Paris in 2024 officially backed Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region, where Algeria supports the pro-independence Polisario Front.
Nunez said Monday had been devoted to working sessions aimed at “restoring normal security relations,” including cooperation in judicial matters, policing and intelligence.
He thanked the Algerian president for instructing his services to work with French authorities to “improve cooperation on readmissions.” Algeria has for months refused to take back its nationals living irregularly in France.
The renewed cooperation is expected to take effect “as quickly as possible” and continue “at a very high level,” Nunez confirmed.
According to images released by Algerian authorities, the talks brought together senior security officials from both countries, including France’s domestic intelligence chief and Algeria’s head of internal security.
Invited by his counterpart Said Sayoud, Nunez’s trip had been planned for months but repeatedly delayed.
Both sides have a backlog of issues to tackle. Before traveling, Nunez said he intended to raise “all security issues,” including drug trafficking and counterterrorism.
Algeria plays a key role in the latter, sharing borders with junta-led Niger and Mali, both gripped by terrorist violence.
Ahead of the trip, Nunez had also mentioned the case of Christophe Gleizes, a French sports journalist serving a seven-year sentence for “glorifying terrorism.”
It is unclear whether the matter was discussed with Tebboune, from whom the journalist’s family has requested a pardon.
