Eli Lake, Columnist

Trump's Wiretap Claims Are Bogus. But He's Still Onto Something.

Congress is right to look into how many Americans' phone calls are "incidentally collected" by intelligence agencies.

March 15, 2017 at 9:18 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

No secrets here.
Photographer: Drew Angerer DrewGetty Images

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The current scandal surrounding President Donald Trump's tweeted accusations that his predecessor wiretapped Trump Tower is proof of what might be called the Salena Zito rule. Zito, of course, wrote the essay in the Atlantic how Trump's supporters took him "seriously, but not literally," whereas the press took him "literally, but not seriously."

This is a good way to understand the current state of the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and Trump's wild accusations against Barack Obama. Barring an unexpected turn of events, FBI director James Comey will confirm on Monday before the House Intelligence Committee that what Trump tweeted on March 4 was literally false. There was no authorized surveillance of Trump Tower.