{"id":2395,"date":"2017-03-26T23:25:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T04:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/?p=2395"},"modified":"2017-11-20T20:23:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T01:23:37","slug":"can-obama-sue-trump-for-his-wiretapping-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/2017\/03\/26\/can-obama-sue-trump-for-his-wiretapping-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Obama Sue Trump for His Wiretapping Claims?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Photo courtesy of Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Maura Perri, Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

On March 4, 2017, President Donald Trump turned to Twitter to tell his nearly 27 million followers: \u201cJust found out that Obama had my \u2018wires tapped\u2019 in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found…\u201d and \u201cHow low as President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process…\u201d[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Since Trump made these claims against former President Barack Obama, there has been constant news coverage and dialogue on the matter. Multiple intelligence sources (including the FBI, the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the Justice Department) have announced that there is no direct evidence supporting these claims,[2]<\/sup><\/a> but Trump has continued to present them as valid. When German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently visited the U.S., Trump drew a comparison between himself and Merkel: \u201cAs far as wiretapping I guess this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps.\u201d[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Due to the derogatory nature of these claims, many have suggested that Obama could bring a libel suit against Trump. But would such a tort claim be successful?<\/p>\n

According to the Restatement (Second) of Torts, to bring a successful defamation claim (libel being a type of defamation), there must be a false and defamatory statement, a publication of that statement to a third party, and harm caused by the publication.[4]<\/sup><\/a> Therefore, if these claims are false, as suggested by the evidence, because the statements were on Twitter, and because they could negatively affect Obama\u2019s rapport with the American people, \u201cthe former president would stand on solid ground if he decided to file a libel suit against President Trump.\u201d[5]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The case of Obama v. Trump<\/em>, however, is unlikely to make its way to courts. Because Obama is \u201ca member of an extremely exclusive brotherhood\u201d \u2014 as a president of the United States \u2014 he would be \u201capprehensive to break with [the] tradition\u201d of presidents not bringing disputes against one another.[6]<\/sup><\/a> Furthermore, as Obama is in retirement, he would \u201cprobably prefer drinking a Mai Tai on the shores of Kailua Bay in Hawaii\u201d than bring suit.[7]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Veronica Stracqualursi and Adam Kelsey, A timeline of President Trump\u2019s unsubstantiated wiretapping claims<\/em>, ABC News (March 18, 2017) http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/timeline-president-trumps-unsubstantiated-wiretapping-claims\/story?id=46198888<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Stephen Collinson, Trump stands by wiretapping claim during Merkel visit<\/em>, CNN (March 18, 2017) http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/03\/17\/politics\/donald-trump-angela-merkel\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Restatement (Second) of Torts \u00a7 558 (West 2017).<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Daryel R. Dunston, Can Obama Sue Trump for Libel?<\/em>, The Huffington Post, (March 8, 2017) http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/can-obama-sue-trump-for-libel_us_58bf84e2e4b0a797c1d396f2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Maura Perri, Staff Writer On March 4, 2017, President Donald Trump turned to Twitter to tell his nearly 27 million followers: \u201cJust found out that Obama had my \u2018wires tapped\u2019 in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found…\u201d and \u201cHow low as President Obama gone to tapp [\u2026] <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[672,1631,1632,702,1634,632,1630,394,491,1247,1635,74,1633,709,1162],"class_list":["post-2395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-juris-blog","category-posts","tag-barack-obama","tag-defamation","tag-defamatory","tag-donald-trump","tag-false","tag-harm","tag-libel","tag-obama","tag-president-barack-obama","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-publication","tag-tort","tag-torts","tag-trump","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2395"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2423,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions\/2423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}