A former CIA counterterrorism analyst says President Donald Trump's bizarre Twitter rant over the weekend could sow the seeds for his downfall.
Aki Peritz, a former intelligence analyst who specialized in terrorist threats, strongly doubts former President Barack Obama, a constitutional lawyer, would have illegally wiretapped Trump during the presidential campaign, reported the Independent.
"It doesn't happen at all," Peritz told BBC Radio 4. "If the president is to be believed, Barack Obama had done something that is completely out of character and has not been done since the 1970s, and even then that caused all kind of scandal during the Nixon years."
FBI director James Comey asked the U.S. Department of Justice to correct the president's baseless claim, because it accuses his investigators of breaking the law, but senior White House officials have asked Congress to investigate Trump's accusation -- which appears to be based on a right-wing radio host's claims.
"When director Comey comes out and probably repudiates this accusation by the president, we've set up a very interesting uncharted place where you have one of our top law enforcement officials going up against the president," Peritz said.
"This could be a matter that brings down a president," he added. "It also could be nothing at all."
Peritz said he was troubled by the alleged relationship between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence, but he said the FBI would not have tapped their phones without a warrant.
"If the FBI is actually surveilling individuals, it was probably legitimate legal targets such as the Russian ambassador or individuals in Moscow involved in the intelligence services and they in turn were talking to people," Peritz said.
"But the American citizens in New York city are not the actual targets unless they have been identified by the FBI as agents of a foreign power, or a terrorist," he added.
