Trump election campaign spied on by Obama’s government, US attorney-general claims
DONALD Trump’s presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton was allegedly spied on by Barack Obama's spooks.
The US attorney-general William Barr claims spies under the command of former President Obama were monitoring Trump's 2016 bid for the White House.
Barr said he was determined to find out about the “genesis and conduct” of the FBI investigation, which led to the inquiry by the agency's ex boss Robert Mueller into Russian election influence.
The attorney-general — the US government's top lawyer — who was speaking to a Senate Committee hearing yesterday, said: "I think spying did occur.
";The question is whether it was adequately predicated.
"I'm not suggesting it was not adequately predicated, but I need to explore that."
While Barr praised the "outstanding" FBI, he told the panel: "I think there was probably a failure among the group of leaders."
He added: "I feel I have an obligation to make sure government power is not abused."
"I want to make sure there was no unauthorised surveillance."
A full probe into intelligence activities during the presidential election has now been launched.
'THIS WAS AN ATTEMPTED COUP'
This comes after Trump said he has spoken to Barr about tracing the origins of the Mueller inquiry which ultimately cleared him of colluding with Russia.
The President described the investigation as "an attempted coup".
A full copy its final report is expected to be released next week.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday morning, Trump railed against the probe.
I feel I have an obligation to make sure government power is not abused
US attorney-general William Barr
The Mueller investigation cleared him and his aides of collusion with the Kremlin, making no determination on whether they had tried to obstruct justice.
Trump said: "This was an attempted coup.
";This was an attempted take-down of a president.
"And we beat them. We beat them."
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Trump added: "So the Mueller report, when they talk about obstruction we fight back. And do you know why we fight back?
"Because I knew how illegal this whole thing was. It was a scam.
"What I'm most interested in is getting started, hopefully the attorney general, he mentioned it yesterday.
"He's doing a great job, getting started on going back to the origins of exactly where this all started. Because this was an illegal witch hunt, and everybody knew it.
"And they knew it too. And they got caught. And what they did was treason."
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