President Donald Trump has made a habit of lashing out at Obama and of complaining about the ongoing investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. | Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images Trump says Obama administration investigated campaign's alleged Russia ties to help Clinton

President Donald Trump questioned Monday morning why the Obama-era Justice Department launched an investigation into his campaign in the midst of the 2016 election, positing that then-President Barack Obama had sought to kneecap the Trump campaign and bolster that of Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“Why did the Obama Administration start an investigation into the Trump Campaign (with zero proof of wrongdoing) long before the Election in November?” Trump wrote on Twitter, leveling allegations that dispute previously reported details. “Wanted to discredit so Crooked H would win. Unprecedented. Bigger than Watergate! Plus, Obama did NOTHING about Russian meddling.”


The president has made a habit of lashing out at Obama and of complaining about the ongoing investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and allegations that individuals connected to the Trump campaign colluded with those efforts. Trump has regularly labeled those investigations as a “witch hunt.”

Trump’s morning accusations against his predecessor run counter to public reporting that Obama’s Justice Department was in the midst of investigating the Russian connections of Trump campaign advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos as the 2016 campaign was ongoing. The New York Times reported that Russian spies in 2013 tried to recruit Carter Page, though he was not connected to the Trump campaign at the time.

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And while Trump wrote online Monday that Obama had sought to aid the Clinton campaign with talk of the Kremlin’s meddling efforts, Vice President Joe Biden said in January that the Obama administration was fearful in 2016 that fully discussing the known breadth of Russia’s efforts would be seen as a partisan move. Biden recalled that the White House sought bipartisan help in warning the American people of the Kremlin’s interference campaign but were rebuffed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a charge McConnell’s office has denied.