Ten Questions for President Trump
This morning, the country awoke to a bizarre tweetstorm from the President of the United States, about which I have ten questions.
First off, here's what Trump tweeted:
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
This morning, the country awoke to a bizarre tweetstorm from the President of the United States, about which I have ten questions.
First off, here's what Trump tweeted:
Here are my questions, about all of which I am, I want to stress, entirely serious:
- Are you making the allegation that President Obama conducted electronic surveillance of Trump Tower in your capacity as President of the United States based on intelligence or law enforcement information available to you in that capacity?
- If so—that is, if you have executive branch information validating that either a FISA wiretap or a Title III wiretap took place—have you reviewed the applications for the surveillance and have you or your lawyers concluded that they lack merit?
- If you know that a FISA wiretap took place, are you or were you at the time of the application, an agent of a foreign power within the meaning of FISA?
- Was anyone else working in Trump Tower an agent of a foreign power within the meaning of FISA?
- If you know that a Title III wiretap took place, are you or were you at the time of the application engaged in criminal activity that would support a Title III wiretap or might you have previously engaged in criminal activity that might legitimately be the subject of a Title III wiretap?
- Was anyone else working in Trump Tower engaged in criminal activity that would support a Title III wiretap or might another person have previously engaged in criminal activity that might legitimately be the subject of a Title III wiretap?
- If you were tweeting not based on knowledge received as chief executive of the United States, were you tweeting in your capacity as a reader of Breitbart or a listener of Mark Levin's radio show?
- If so, on what basis are you confident the stories and allegations in these august outlets are true and accurate vis a vis the activity of the government you, in fact, now head?
- If you learned of this alleged surveillance from media outlets, did you or anyone on your staff check with any responsible law enforcement or intelligence officials or agencies before making public allegations against your own government?
- What exactly does any of this have to do with Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Author's Note: This tweetstorm episode is an excellent illustration of some of the points Quinta Jurecic and I made yesterday in a lengthy article on the presidential oath of office. I commend it to you.