The White House Sunday morning demanded that Congress investigate whether the Obama administration abused its executive powers in connection with the 2016 election. A spokesman for Obama denied the former President “ordered” any electronic surveillance on the Republican nominee.

Today’s statement calls on Congress to look into Obama’s activities in connection with its investigation into alleged Russian activity to influence the election.

Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling.

President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees use 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.

On Saturday, President Trump had sent a shock wave across the Nation’s Capital in a series of tweets accusing Obama of wire-tapping Trump Tower in the days before the election, comparing Obama to “Nixon/Watergate” and McCarthyism.

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

The “reports” mentioned in the statement refer in major part to an article published Friday by Breitbart that details and expands on conservative radio host and lawyer Mark Levin’s call for Congress to investigate Obama’s alleged “silent coup” against Trump. Among the items cited are two requests from the Obama Justice Department to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court or FISA:

June 2016: FISA request. The Obama administration files a request with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to monitor communications involving Donald Trump and several advisers. The request, uncharacteristically, is denied.

October 2016: FISA request. The Obama administration submits a new, narrow request to the FISA court, now focused on a computer server in Trump Tower suspected of links to Russian banks. No evidence is found — but the wiretaps continue, ostensibly for national security reasons, Andrew McCarthy at National Review later notes.

Today’s request from the Trump administration does not single out Obama, referring instead to the “executive branch.” The Obama denial on Saturday specifically covered only the former President and White House officials, insisting they steered clear of “interference” in the “independent investigations” of the Department of Justice.

Former CIA Boss James Clapper Denies

Former CIA Director James Clapper told NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday morning, “There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect at the time, as a candidate, or against his campaign.” When pressed if he could confirm or deny any such FISA court order targeting Trump existed, Clapper said, “I can deny it.” Wiggle room is provided by the phrase “mounted against.” Any activity, they can later argue, was “mounted against” the Russians they believe were doing business with Trump and his campaign. After all it is the Foreign Intelligence Service Court.

When asked by host Chuck Todd whether there was an FISA order to monitor Trump Tower, Clapper said, “Not to my knowledge.”

Incidentally, “Not to my knowledge” was also Clapper’s answer when asked whether there was any evidence that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Kremlin while Russia was allegedly working to influence the election.

It is also worth remembering that James Clapper is the same individual who lied under oath to Congress about the extent of NSA surveillance activity.

“Stinks to High Heaven”

Last month, General Michael Flynn was forced to resign as National Security Advisor after he misled Vice President Mike Pence about contacts he had had with Russian officials during the campaign. The existence of those contacts were made public by the illegal leaking of intelligence gathered during surveillance directed at those Russian officials. Intelligence gathered by and disseminated throughout the Obama administration, then leaked to the media. It is fair to ask, “Who, truly, was the target of the intelligence effort? And was the motive political?”

As reported by The Stream, Saturday’s denial by Obama’s spokesman indicated the White House as a “cardinal rule” did not interfere with “independent investigations” of the Department of Justice. Even taking them at their word, even taking the position that the official target of the surveillance wasn’t Trump, the Obama administration still faces an ethical dilemma in regards to this blossoming scandal and the 2016 election.

The head of that investigation looking into the Trump-Russian connection would be former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, an Obama appointee and longtime Clinton associate. In the midst of the investigation and in the middle of the 2016 campaign Loretta Lynch secretly met with Bill Clinton, the husband of Trump’s opponent. Did she discuss the investigation of Trump? Did she recuse herself from that investigation once her secret meeting became public?

And what of Obama? Mere days before leaving office, he ordered the NSA to begin disseminating its gathered data to the 16 other intelligence agencies across the government. Both Clapper and Lynch signed off on the move. As Jay Sekulow noted in February, “What that does is almost creates a shadow government. You have all these people who are not agreeing with President Trump’s position, so it just festers more leaks.” 

Meanwhile, Obama guru Valerie Jarrett has moved into the Obama’s new Washington, D.C. home. According to the Daily Mail, the residence, just two miles from the White House, will serve as the “nerve center” for the growing “insurgency” to topple the President. Former Attorney General Eric Holder said last week, Obama is “ready to roll.”

As Newt Gingrich told Fox News this morning, “All this stuff smells to high heaven despite the best efforts of the elite media to cover it up.”