President Donald Trump said Thursday he based his controversial claim President Barack Obama had his "wires tapped" in Trump Tower on "a little bit of a hunch."
In a phone interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, the pair lamented alleged improper behavior from federal law enforcement, which Trump says continued after he won the election in 2016.
"I don't know if you remember, a long time ago, very early on I used the word 'wiretap,' and I put in quotes, meaning surveillance, spying you can sort of say whatever you want," Trump said, saying it attracted attention "like you've never seen."
"Now I understand why, because they thought two years ago when I said that just on a little bit of a hunch and a little bit of wisdom maybe, it blew up because they thought maybe I was wise to them," Trump continued.
"Or they were caught. And that's why. If they weren't doing anything wrong it would've just gotten by, nobody would've cared about it."
"It was pretty insignificant I thought when I said it, and it's pretty amazing," he added.
The president made the claim about his predecessor in March 2017, alleging "President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!"
The Justice Department in a court filing the following September said neither it nor the FBI had evidence Trump Tower was the target of surveillance efforts by the Obama administration during the presidential election.
But Trump reasserted his allegations following the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the election, when Attorney General William Barr's contention that "I think spying did occur."
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