Experts Cast Doubt On President’s Claim

Mr. President: If there was a wiretap at Trump Tower, that means a fed judge found probable cause of crime which means you are in deep shit. https://t.co/i7dUMtHXmo â€” Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 4, 2017

If President Donald Trump’s phones were tapped during last year’s campaign â€” which he alleged on Saturday â€” it means he’s “in deep shit,” according to one Democratic congressman.Â

“Mr. President: If there was a wiretap at Trump Tower, that means a fed judge found probable cause of crime which means you are in deep shit,” California Rep. Ted Lieu (pictured) wrote on Twitter.Â

Trump and his campaign have been accused of communicating with Russian officials while the Kremlin was allegedly attempting to swing the election in his favor by hacking Democratic targets.Â

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi responded to Trump’s unhinged Saturday morning tweetstorm by repeating her call for an independent investigation.Â

The Deflector-in-Chief is at it again. An investigation by an independent commission is the only answer. â€” Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi)Â March 4, 2017

Lieu’s tweet appeared to be based on a Washington PostÂ reportÂ in which a former senior U.S. intelligence official said if Trump’s phones were tapped, it means there was probable cause that the lines were being used by agents of a foreign power.Â

But the former official, speaking on condition of anonymity, saidÂ Trump’s claims about wiretapping â€” for which the White House has provided no evidence â€” seemed “highly unlikely.”Â

“It seems unthinkable,” the official said. “If that were the case by some chance, that means that a federal judge would have found that there was either probable cause that he had committed a crime or was an agent of a foreign power. … You can’t just go around and tap buildings.”

Ben Rhodes, who served as foreign policy advisor for the Obama administration, also cast doubt on the validity of Trump’s tweets, in which he accused Obama of ordering the wiretap. Â

“No President can order a wiretap,” RhodesÂ wrote on Twitter in response to Trump. “Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you.”Â

No President can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. https://t.co/lEVscjkzSw â€” Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) March 4, 2017

The Post’s Robert Costa reports that Trump’s tweets about wiretapping caught his advisers off guard. The tweets were sent from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he is vacationing again this weekend:Â

Several Trump advisers woke up this morning surprised by the president’s tweets. They weren’t told of his plans, a 2nd official says. â€” Robert Costa (@costareports) March 4, 2017Â

Trump’s tweets came in the wake of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from any investigation of contacts between Russian officials and Trump’s campaign. Sessions’ recused himself after it was revealed that he met twice with the Russian ambassador while serving as a surrogate for Trump’s campaign last year. During his confirmation hearing, Sessions told senators he had no communications with the Russians during the campaign. Â