Trump demands Congress investigate Obama on wiretapping claim

White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted a request that Congress investigate the Obama administration Sunday morning.

"Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling," Spicer wrote, adding:

President Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.

"Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted," he concluded.

Ostensibly the request is in relation to accusations Trump tweeted Saturday that former President Barack Obama had ordered wiretapping of his presidential campaign prior to the election.

The explosive assertion was denied by an Obama spokesperson while others like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) vowed to look into why Trump believes his campaign was surveilled at the request of the previous administration. He also said that if the surveillance was legally approved by a FISA court that it would be the "biggest scandal since Watergate," but for Trump, not Obama.

White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Sunday that President Trump "is going off of information that he's saying has led him to believe that this is a very real potential."

Trump had previously accused Obama of setting "roadblocks" in the path of his administration. Some took that to mean encouraging the "deep state" bureaucrats in the government to sabotage him by leaking information to the press that led to the resignation of his national security advisor Mike Flynn, and also the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions into investigations of the Trump campaign.

Democrats have also been demanding further investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government in an attempt to influence the 2016 election.

CNN's Jake Tapper noted that the statement suggests the White House "will not provide evidence to back up president's claim or even comment further."