‘Spygate About to Blow?’ Users Wild as Trump Pins Edited Pic of Tower-Climbing Obama With Binoculars

While the Trump impeachment trial is currently unfolding in the US Senate, the 45th president took to Twitter to post a photoshopped image depicting his predecessor Barack Obama scaling the walls of Trump Tower with binoculars in his hands.

​The post, that Trump later pinned to his Twitter feed, was an apparent reference to the president’s earlier claims that Obama and his associates secretly spied on the Republican candidate during the 2016 presidential campaign. The allegations, also known as the “spygate” conspiracy theory have remained unconfirmed.

While many of Trump’s followers did not seem to appreciate president’s humour, some suggested that his post was particularly timely amid the ongoing impeachment trial and pointed out that it was time to uncover the alleged “truth” about Obama’s spying activities.

Findings From Horowitz Report on FBI’s Alleged Abuse of Intelligence Gathering

In December, inspector general of the Justice Department Michael Horowitz reported to the US Senate that there were 17 “basic and fundamental” errors and omissions in FBI applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to bug Trump 2016 campaign aide Carter Page during the bureau’s investigation into alleged links between Donald Trump and Russian officials.

Although Horowitz concluded that there was no evidence that the FBI tapped “any other phones or anything else” other than Page’s, many, including US Attorney General William Barr, doubted whether the inspector general’s findings were comprehensive enough.

The FBI’s efforts to obtain FISA court warrants to keep tabs on Page were linked to the bureau’s investigation into alleged links between Donald Trump’s election campaign and Russian officials in a suggested bid to influence the results of the 2016 elections. After a two-year investigation, the allegations were dismissed by special counsel for the US Department of Justice Robert Mueller’s report.