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Reuters
washington
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that documents released by the FBI relating to a former adviser's ties to Russia showed that his campaign for the 2016 presidential election had been illegally spied upon by US law enforcement, but offered no evidence to support his assertion.
In a series of Twitter posts, Trump also accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice of misleading the courts during a probe of Russian interference in the election, but did not elaborate.
The FBI documents relea sed on Saturday showed how in 2016 the bureau requested surveillance of the former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, as part of that investigation, saying the bureau believed he had been collaborating with the Russian government.
"Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC,"Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the Democratic National Committee."Republicans must get tough now. An illegal Scam!"
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why Trump believed the 412 pages of heavily redacted documents proved the FBI and DOJ demonstrated illegal conduct or were misleading courts.
The DOJ did not immediately response to requests to comment on Trump's allegation. The FBI declined to comment.
Page told CNN on Sunday he was never an agent of a foreign power, and that the documents overstated his ties to Russia.
Page could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.
A spokesman for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is now leading the probe into Russia's interference in the 2016 election, declined to comment on the president's tweets.
Trump has repeatedly criticized US law enforcement agencies that are investigating allegations of Russian meddling in the vote, and he has insisted there was no collusion with members of his campaign. Russia denies any interference.
Trump's statements on Twitter followed sharp criticism, including from some Republicans, of his meeting in Finland last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At a joint news conference, Trump failed to confront the Russian leader over Moscow's alleged election interference and appeared to side with the Kremlin over US intelligence agencies.
The documents released on Saturday by the FBI included surveillance applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
