Conservative radio host Mark Levin advanced the controversy over President Trump’s claim his predecessor, Barack Obama, wiretapped his phones, by saying Obama must have known about the alleged surveillance.
In an interview Monday on Fox News, Levin said, “I assume Obama knew something, I mean, unless he’s Hellen Keller.”
Trump over the weekend accused Obama of “wiretapping” his campaign headquarters at Trump Tower, presumably to find evidence that the campaign had made questionable contact with Russian government officials.
At the time, Trump had not put forth any evidence to back up the claim but media outlets have traced it back to comments made last week by Levin on his radio show.
Levin had cited a report that the FBI in October “sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.”
His commentary was then picked up and fleshed out further by Breitbart News, the website that White House adviser Stephen Bannon formerly ran.
Obama has denied he directed any wiretapping and James Clapper, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, has also denied that it ever happened.
During the Fox News interview, Levin backed up his assertion that Obama “knew something” about the alleged surveillance by pointing to news reports that the intelligence community had investigated associates of Trump, his campaign and Russia.
