--- title: Donald Trump: White House Demands Wiretapping Investigation description: The White House has asked Congress to probe whether President Obama abused executive branch powers ahead of the 2016 election canonical: https://time.com/4691279/white-house-trump-obama-wire-tap/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-05T15:22:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:40:08.944Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Demands Congress Investigate President Trump's Wiretapping Allegations og:description: Trump wants a probe og:url: https://time.com/4691279/white-house-trump-obama-wire-tap/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f9e322aa67833c8/6988bd047cdbac8d78d575a5/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Obama holds a press conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Demands Congress Investigate President Trump's Wiretapping Allegations twitter:description: Trump wants a probe twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f9e322aa67833c8/6988bd047cdbac8d78d575a5/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Demands Congress Investigate President Trump's Wiretapping Allegations by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Mar 5, 2017 3:22 PM UTC  President Barack Obama delivers remarks during as press conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 16, 2016. President Barack Obama delivers remarks during as press conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 16, 2016.Riccardo Savi—AP by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Mar 5, 2017 3:22 PM UTC The White House asked Congress Sunday to probe whether former President Obama abused executive-branch powers during the 2016 election following Trump’s accusations that he [wiretapped Trump Tower while still in office](http://time.com/4691226/barack-obama-president-donald-trump-wiretap/). “Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement. According to the statement, 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.” “Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted,” the statement said. On Saturday, Trump [claimed, without citing any evidence, in a series of tweets](http://time.com/4691226/barack-obama-president-donald-trump-wiretap/) that Obama had bypassed a court rejection to wiretap Trump Tower in New York City and suggested a “good lawyer” could make a “great case” out of his accusation. A spokesman for Obama [said](http://time.com/4691226/barack-obama-president-donald-trump-wiretap/) Trump’s claim was “simply false.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4691279/white-house-trump-obama-wire-tap/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4691279/white-house-trump-obama-wire-tap/"},"headline":"White House Demands Congress Investigate President Trump's Wiretapping Allegations","datePublished":"2017-03-05T15:22:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:40:08.944Z","description":"President Trump wants a probe","url":"https://time.com/4691279/white-house-trump-obama-wire-tap/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f9e322aa67833c8/6988bd047cdbac8d78d575a5/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f9e322aa67833c8/6988bd047cdbac8d78d575a5/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama holds a press conference","caption":"President Barack Obama delivers remarks during as press conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 16, 2016.","creditText":"Riccardo Savi—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4691279/white-house-trump-obama-wire-tap/","name":"White House Demands Congress Investigate President Trump's Wiretapping Allegations"}}]}] ```