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President Trump has accused former President Obama of... something:
In a string of tweets posted early Saturday morning, President Trump let loose a barrage of accusations at his predecessor. He alleged that former President Obama had his "wires tapped" in Trump Tower before Election Day last year, accusing Obama of "McCarthyism" and being a "bad (or sick) guy."
Trump, who is under significant scrutiny for his administration's contacts with Russia before he took office, offered no evidence to support his claims Saturday morning. Neither the White House nor Obama's office has responded immediately to NPR's requests for comment.
[...] 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, 2017Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017How 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
Also at WaPo, NYT, Reuters, Fox News, BBC, and Snopes, which hints that it may be related to this story.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday March 06 2017, @09:26PM
The standard for libel in the U.S. for statements against public figures is called "actual malice." What this generally means legally is that you write something against someone publicly that you KNOW for certain is not true, but you write it anyway. The problem with statements like Trump makes is that he could likely claim there was some sort of uncertainty -- he saw a report about X, which he assumed also applied to Y or whatever.
The "actual malice" standard also includes the possibility of "reckless disregard" for whether the statement is true or false. I think there would be a strong argument that Trump frequently has made statements that would fall under the "reckless disregard" category.
Anyhow, as to whether this could actually lead to a suit (and it would have to be a lawsuit, since criminal libel is basically dead in the U.S.) -- there are court cases that say presidents are immune to civil damages and liability when they are conducting official presidential acts. But the law has never really tested whether tweeting about a conspiracy theory qualifies as part of Trump's official "presidential duties." I doubt Obama would bring a suit. Eventually, though, Trump may cross the line and someone might actually try to sue him.